Healthline

By SUSAN ASCHOFF, Times wires
© St. Petersburg Times
published November 5, 2002

HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETES with three or more concussions appear to be much more vulnerable to increasingly severe symptoms if they suffer another, according to a study in the November issue of Neurosurgery.

The study, done at the University of Pittsburgh, demonstrated what doctors have commonly assumed: Multiple concussions have a cumulative effect that lowers the threshold for subsequent concussion injuries and symptoms.

School coaches, trainers and physicians are correct to weigh an athlete's history before allowing him or her to return to a game, said Dr. Michael Collins, the study's lead author. Giving the brain time to recover is crucial in preventing further damage, Collins says.

Investigators looked at 88 high school athletes, most of them football players, who sustained concussions in the 2000-01 school year. Those who had had three or more concussions were nine times more likely to experience serious symptoms the next time, including disorientation, confusion, dizziness, amnesia, nausea, uncoordinated hand-eye movements and unconsciousness.

About 10 percent of high school athletes participating in contact sports in the United States sustain a concussion each season, researchers said.

DANIEL HALEY, author of Politics in Healing, will speak in Sarasota this week.

In his book, the health care activist writes about alternative treatments for cancer that he says are nontoxic and effective but ignored by the Food and Drug Administration, pharmaceutical companies and the established medical community.

Haley will speak at 7 p.m. Friday at Unity Church of Sarasota, 800 Cocoanut Ave. Admission is free, but a contribution is requested.

For information, call (941) 364-2129.

THE LANDMARK BOOK The Bipolar Child (Broadway Books, $26), which a few years ago set the stage for a shift in the way manic-depression in children is diagnosed and treated, has been updated by its authors, Dr. Demitri Papolos and his wife, Janice.

Still controversial, their theory is that the illness looks nothing like adult mania and is commonly misdiagnosed as attention or impulsivity disorder.

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