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Concussion With Depression Worsens Symptoms, Brain Connectivity
The comorbidity of depression and sports-related concussion amplifies symptoms of both conditions, according to study findings published in Brain Research.
Additionally, electroencephalography (EEG) revealed significantly more disruptions in brain connectivity with both depression and concussion.
“We understand from clinical research that many of the symptoms commonly associated with depression in isolation also appear after concussion,” said study first author Owen Griffith, a doctoral candidate in the Penn State Department of Kinesiology, University Park, Pennsylvania. “We also know that people who have depression recover more slowly from a concussion. So, we wanted to measure — both subjectively and objectively — whether these 2 neurological conditions also have a compounding effect on each other, and our study demonstrated that they do.”
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The study included 35 college athletes divided into 4 groups: healthy controls with no history of concussion or depression, those with a recent sports-related concussion but no history of depression, those with a history of depression but no concussion, and those with both a history of depression and a recent sports-related concussion. Participants underwent neuropsychological screenings and EEG.
Participants with both depression and concussion had almost double the depressive symptoms as participants with depression or concussion alone, according to the study. Participants with both conditions also reported significantly worse and more prolonged post-concussion symptoms than those with concussion alone.
On EEG, participants with both concussion and depression showed less coherent patterns of alpha wave activity compared with the 3 other groups. While participants in the depression-only and concussion-only groups showed some disruption in functional connectivity compared with healthy controls, the level of disruption was significantly greater in participants with both concussion and a history of depression.
“This study presented only a partial picture of the scope of brain connectivity disruption,” Griffith said, “but these results are striking enough that they should inspire practitioners to consider this in their management of patients.”
Specifically, athletes with sports-related concussion who have a pre-existing depression or other mental health conditions may require an extended recovery period.
“Historically, the clinical standard was to approach concussion as a problem with a one-size-fits-all solution,” said Semyon “Sam” Slobounov, PhD, Griffen’s doctoral advisor and a coauthor of the study. “This study demonstrated that people with pre-existing mental health conditions may require more care in recovery from a concussion so that we can keep our athletes — and members of the general population — healthy throughout their lives.”
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