Women may be at increased risk of long-term physical and mental issues after a concussion, a new study has revealed.
In analysis of 2,000 people who sustained a head injury, women were found to be more likely than men to still have some symptoms a year later.
These included memory and concentration problems, alongside headaches, dizziness or fatigue.
Women between the ages of 35 and 49 typically had worse symptoms than both younger and older women, the research found.
The study revealed that in other traumatic injuries, men and women’s recovery times were similar – the main area of disparity was in brain injuries.
While this research cannot answer the question as to why this happens, says lead researcher Professor Harvey Levin, from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston – it is possible, he says, that chronic inflammation in the brain tissue or hormonal influences play a role.
The brain has receptors for oestrogen, and previous research has indicated that women who sustain concussion at certain times in the menstrual cycle tend to have a slower recovery.
It also builds on previous research which has also pointed to sex differences in concussion recovery.
Writing an accompanying piece to the study, which was published in JAMA Network Open, Martina Anto-Ocrah, an assistant professor of emergency medicine and neurology at the University of Rochester Medical Center, says it strengthens the case that women’s slower recovery is related to concussion.
“We expect most patients to recover within weeks,” Anto-Ocrah says, adding that about 90 per cent have largely recovered within three months.
But in the study, women did have higher rates of depression and anxiety diagnoses before the concussion, compared to men. And those are risk factors for prolonged concussion symptoms, Anto-Ocrah adds.
However, the researchers accounted for depression and anxiety, and those diagnoses did not seem to explain women’s more persistent symptoms.
Some women, Anto-Ocrah says, encounter scepticism when they tell their doctor they are still having concussion symptoms many months after the injury.
“This is additional proof that it’s not all in your head,” she adds.
