The Influence of Psychological and Lifestyle Factors on the Reporting of Postconcussion-Like Symptoms.

For this research study, the researchers wanted to “To investigate the potential influence of psychological, lifestyle, and situational factors on the change in postconcussion-like symptoms reported over seven consecutive days in a cohort of normal individuals.” Over these seven days, the researchers texted the participants between 9 am and 8 pm at random times during the day. After the participants received these texts they had to fill out symptom evaluation. The researchers did not find that any demographic factors impacted total symptom score and symptom score severity. The researchers found that the total symptom score (TSS) score increased when the participants were in a café/restaurant. An additional factor that the researchers found that anxiety also contributed to an increase in the symptom severity score (SSS).

These findings can tell us a couple of things. The first thing that these results can tell us is that if we don’t conduct a symptom evaluation in an area that is busy and distracting it could skew the number and severity of symptoms that a patient is experiencing. Thus making it more difficult for the patient to return to baseline in a timely manner. Moreover, when we are taking, this research points to the usefulness of noting any diagnoses such as anxiety that could impact a patient’s report of symptoms post-concussion.

You can find this research article in full here.