A systematic review of the emotional responses of student athletes post concussion

BackgroundThe estimated incidence of sports related concussion has increased from 300,000 in 2007 to over 1.6 million in 2017, with a large percentage occurring in youth athletes. There are growing concerns about the cognitive and emotional wellbeing of young athletes during concussion recovery.ObjectiveTo review research evaluating how concussion relates to changes in emotion and mood in high school and college athletes.Design/methodsRelevant articles from 1997 to 2017 were searched on PubMed using keywords and official MeSH terms such as: (1) concussion; or brain injuries, traumatic; or TBI and (2) high school; or college; and, (3) depression; or affect; or mood. English language articles were included for analysis if they measured concussed high school or college athletes using a validated instrument for assessing emotion and mood.ResultsTen published studies met the inclusion criteria. Five studies measured changes in emotional response in athletes after concussion. The other studies compared emotional response in athletes after concussion to the emotional response in athletes after non-concussive sports injury, such as musculoskeletal, or orthopedic injury.ConclusionDespite heterogeneity in methods and limitations in the literature, our review suggests growing consensus that concussions result in altered emotions and mood. However, current research shows conflicting results on whether alterations in emotional response are different post-concussion than post non-concussive sports injury.