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108 Concussion Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

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Concussions have become a significant concern in recent years, especially in the world of sports. These traumatic brain injuries can have severe short-term and long-term consequences, making them a compelling topic for essays. Whether you are writing for an academic assignment or simply want to explore this subject further, here are 108 concussion essay topic ideas and examples to get you started:

• The history of concussions in sports: A comprehensive overview.
• The impact of concussions on professional athletes' careers.
• The role of concussions in youth sports: Prevention and management.
• The psychological effects of concussions on athletes' mental health.
• Gender disparities in concussion rates and recovery outcomes.
• The economic implications of concussions in professional sports.
• The ethical considerations of allowing athletes to participate after a concussion.
• The long-term consequences of multiple concussions on brain health.
• Innovative technologies for diagnosing concussions in real-time.
• The relationship between concussions and neurodegenerative diseases.
• The impact of concussions on athletes' decision-making abilities.
• The role of coaches in preventing and managing concussions.
• The effectiveness of protective equipment in reducing concussion risks.
• The legal implications of concussions in sports.
• The cultural attitudes towards concussions and their impact on reporting rates.
• The impact of concussions on academic performance in student-athletes.
• The physiological changes in the brain after a concussion.
• The role of nutrition in concussion recovery and prevention.
• The importance of early intervention and treatment after a concussion.
• The role of parents in educating young athletes about concussion risks.
• The impact of concussions on athletes' sleep patterns and quality.
• The relationship between concussions and vestibular dysfunction.
• The impact of concussions on athletes' balance and coordination.
• The role of physical therapy in concussion rehabilitation.
• The long-term effects of concussions on memory and cognitive function.
• The impact of concussions on athletes' visual perception and processing.
• The influence of media coverage on public awareness of concussions.
• The role of sports organizations in implementing concussion protocols.
• The impact of concussions on athletes' quality of life.
• The effectiveness of current concussion management protocols.
• The role of exercise in concussion recovery and prevention.
• The relationship between concussions and depression.
• The impact of concussions on athletes' social interactions and relationships.
• The role of neuropsychological testing in diagnosing concussions.
• The influence of concussion histories on future injury risks.
• The impact of concussions on athletes' academic aspirations and career choices.
• The role of mindfulness and meditation in concussion recovery.
• The relationship between concussions and attention deficit disorders.
• The impact of concussions on athletes' ability to learn and retain information.
• The role of genetics in determining susceptibility to concussions.
• The influence of concussion education programs on athletes' knowledge and behavior.
• The impact of concussions on athletes' decision to continue or quit their sport.
• The relationship between concussions and post-traumatic stress disorder.
• The role of sleep disturbances in prolonged concussion recovery.
• The impact of concussions on athletes' self-esteem and body image.
• The influence of team dynamics on concussion reporting rates.
• The role of alternative therapies in concussion rehabilitation.
• The relationship between concussions and substance abuse.
• The impact of concussions on athletes' academic accommodations and support.
• The role of social support in concussion recovery and coping.
• The influence of prior concussion knowledge on athletes' reporting behaviors.
• The impact of concussions on athletes' executive functioning skills.
• The relationship between concussions and anxiety disorders.
• The role of post-concussion syndrome in prolonged recovery.
• The influence of concussion prevention programs on injury rates.
• The impact of concussions on athletes' identity and sense of self.
• The role of neuroimaging techniques in concussion diagnosis and monitoring.
• The relationship between concussions and learning disabilities.
• The impact of concussions on athletes' emotional regulation and impulse control.
• The influence of team culture on concussion prevention and management.
• The role of nutrition supplements in enhancing concussion recovery.
• The relationship between concussions and migraines.

These essay topics provide a broad range of ideas to explore the multifaceted aspects of concussions. Remember to choose a topic that aligns with your interests and the scope of your assignment. Whether you focus on the medical, psychological, social, or cultural aspects, there is an abundance of information available to delve into the world of concussions. Good luck with your essay!

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Concussion research: Moving beyond the natural history

Thomas a buckley , guest editor.

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Accepted 2021 Jan 12; Issue date 2021 Mar.

This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

The topic of sports-related concussion has been, and will likely continue to be, one of the most challenging topics in sports medicine. The last 2 decades of research has fundamentally altered clinician's and the public's view of concussions from a relatively minor “ding” to be shaken off with rapid return to play to the current realization that concussions are brain injuries with potential lifelong consequences. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the Department of Defense (DoD) Concussion Assessment, Research and Education (CARE) Consortium Study 1 currently elucidating the natural history of concussion will provide clinicians critical recommendations on the diagnosis and management; however, many neuropsychosocial questions remain unanswered. Thus, this special topic on Emerging Concussion Research of the Journal of Sport and Health Science ( JSHS ) is dedicated to addressing key concussion related questions that extend beyond typical clinical concussion management to include broad public health-related concerns.

The preponderance of concussion research is focused on high school and college athletes as well as military members; however, in the opening paper, Kerr et al. investigated concussion attitude and knowledge in 1224 parents of middle school (Grades 5–9) students. Kerr et al. reported that women, white race, higher parental age, and greater competitiveness were associated with higher knowledge, while white race and older parental age were associated with more positive care-seeking attitudes. As concussions that occur early in life are associated with more subsequent concussions, 2 early recognition and appropriate treatment are critical and the results of this study identify areas to improve parent's knowledge and attitudes before their children reach the high school level.

Parental knowledge and attitude are critical as parents can influence their children's decisions on sports participation and the risk of repetitive head impacts in sports remains an ongoing concern. 3 , 4 In the 2nd article, Muñoz et al. investigated purposeful soccer heading and biomarkers (extracellular vesicles) in healthy adults and reported that heading altered extracellular vesicle plasma content, but not size or number of the vesicles. These findings further the use of blood borne biomarkers as an emerging assessment technique and provides an avenue to improve a mechanistic understanding on neurological effects of repetitive head impacts.

While biomarkers remain the next frontier in concussion research, existing clinical assessments are needed to improve the sensitivity and specificity of the current concussion assessment battery. 5 Van Deventer et al. investigated the diagnostic utility of the tandem gait test in 126 pediatric concussion patients compared to 58 healthy individuals and reported slower single and dual task tandem gait performance. Similarly, Oldham et al. compared 30 post-concussion adolescents to 30 healthy individuals and found that eye tracking in concussion participants was an effective assessment tool and was closely associated with elevated symptom profiles. Taken together, these 2 studies provide potentially clinical approaches which may improve the psychometrics of the existing concussion battery.

An additional limitation of the concussion battery is the low sensitivity to determine recovery and neurophysiological deficits that exist beyond clinical recovery. 6 However, the clinical implications of these persistent effects have not been well established and thus the next 2 papers in this special issue address this emerging area. First, Lempke et al. addressed the public health concern related to post-concussion driving. As impairments in motor control, reaction time, and neurocognition are known post-concussion deficits, the potential dangers associated with driving are considerable. In this study, 14 post-concussion participants who were self-reported symptom free were compared to 14 healthy controls on a driving simulator and a computerized neurocognitive test. The post-concussion participants had significantly delayed reaction time across a wide variety of driving tasks with medium to large effect sizes. Given the risk associated with an impaired driver, to both themselves and other community members, this study highlights a critical area to be addressed moving forward. Finally, Chmielewski et al. reviewed the existing literature related to concussion and subsequent musculoskeletal injury. Similar to Lempke et al. , Chmielewski et al. reported on persistent deficits in motor control as a potential mechanism to the about 2 times elevated risk of post-concussion musculoskeletal injury. Taken together, these 2 papers reinforce the need for clinicians to investigate and rehabilitate motor control more comprehensively following a concussion.

The majority of concussion related research has focused on football given the high absolute number of concussions which occur; however, this limits the understanding of sex as a biological variable in concussion research. The final paper in the special issue by Van Pelt et al. addressed this topic by investigating concussions in both men's and women's collegiate ice hockey teams engaged in the CARE study. 1 While there were no sex differences in concussion mechanisms, females were less likely to have delayed onset of symptoms and took longer to be asymptomatic and return to play, further acknowledging that sex is an important consideration in concussion management. This finding extends prior work on sex differences, but is unable to differentiate physiological, psychological, or sociological influences on concussion related symptoms.

We are excited to bring present these articles that address critically important and emerging topics in concussion management. The topics of blood biomarkers, improved postural control assessments, persistent neurophysiological deficits, and sex differences in concussion recovery are at the frontier of concussion related challenges. We appreciate the authors' timely submission of these manuscripts during the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic as well as the reviewers who provided valuable insights to improve the manuscripts. Finally, we thank the editorial board and staff at the JSHS for facilitating the special topic and their support throughout the process.

Competing interests

The author declares that he has no competing interests.

Peer review under responsibility of Shanghai University of Sport.

• 1. Broglio SP, McCrea M, McAllister T. A national study on the effects of concussion in collegiate athletes and U.S. military service academy members: the NCAA-DoD Concussion Assessment, Research and Education (CARE) consortium structure and methods. Sports Med. 2017;47:1437–1451. doi: 10.1007/s40279-017-0707-1. [ DOI ] [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
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Concussions and Their Psychological Effects Research Paper

Having a concussion is a common event. Statistics show that 128 people out of every 100,000 in the United States are affected by it. It should be noted that this figure is drawn from the official data calculated by the number of instances of requiring professional medical aid in hospitals and, in real life, it is even higher (Ropper & Gorson, 2007). Concussions have a wide range of psychological effects that will be investigated in this paper.

First of all, it is necessary to determine the nature of the problem and its symptoms. Concussion, in general, is referred to as a loss of consciousness followed by a brief period of amnesia resulting from trauma caused by any blow to a head (Ropper & Gorson, 2007). It can take a variety of forms from the slightest feeling of a daze to the most severe outcomes such as memory disturbance, amnesia, and posttraumatic nervous instability characterized by hysteria, anxiety, and depression. Because the primary reason for concussions is head trauma, it is common for sportsmen and kids to lead active lifestyles. However, there are many instances of having one accidentally. What is dangerous about them is that sometimes concussions remain unnoticed, especially in the cases where there were no symptoms or they lasted for just a couple of hours. That said, they can lead to the further development of mental health problems.

As of the most common symptoms of concussion, they are usually disabling and include dizziness, clumsiness, mild headache, trouble concentrating, irritability, and weakness. However, in the most severe cases, concussions might also cause vomiting and fluid flowing from ears or nose similar to cerebrospinal fluid (Ropper & Gorson, 2007). Their duration varies from a couple of hours to weeks and even months.

The psychological effects of concussions depend on the severity of trauma and its symptoms. However, it should be highlighted that they might evolve if not detected at the right time and treated properly. The first and most common psychological effect of concussions is what is referred to as mood swings. It is characterized by the inability to control one’s emotions with a quick shift from apathy to irritability and impatience, from lack of initiative to vigilance and back to unresponsiveness to arousal, etc. (Nelson, Janecek, & Mccrea, 2013). The primary determinant here is that there is no apparent reason for such alteration. What can also be related to mood swings is the change in personality, i.e. starting behaving unusually without any obvious cause. Mood swings and change in personality are the foundations of other psychological implications of concussions.

Furthermore, concussions can lead to higher levels of stress. Because sometimes trauma has no severe symptoms but is characterized only by a mild headache or emotional instability, it can as well cause the desire for self-isolation. Together with mood swings and the fact that once unnoticed and untreated, the symptoms might be lasting, concussions significantly affect the ability to handle stresses leading, in the most complex cases, to anxiety and depression disorders.

What is more troubling, in the case of serious injuries, people might demonstrate difficulties in returning to their social functions (Howell, Osternig, Van Donkelaar, Mayr, & Chou, 2013). Because sometimes symptoms of concussions are durable, they hurt the mental health of a patient, the pace of recovery, and the desire to get back to normal life. This psychological effect is usually characterized by depressive moods that are the result of the very fact of having a trauma. It may be aggravated by gender and age. For example, it is generally accepted that men should be brave and tolerate any injuries. This stereotype is especially grave in sports or about young males. For this reason, in the case of head trauma, they choose to ignore it or tend to self-isolation once hospitalized. These decisions are motivated by the fear of being criticized by other men for showing weakness, and they hurt the recovery of social interactions.

Another potential psychological effect of concussions is the choice to limit social activities and change the way of life towards becoming less active. It is usually caused by the fear of having another trauma that might be more severe than the initial one or even leads to lethal outcomes. This decision is especially common after sequential traumas. In similar cases, people choose to become inactive and distance themselves from particular activities that might be dangerous. For example, they might decide to stop going in for sports. It, again, leads to self-isolation and the lack of self-confidence and is caused by depressive moods resulting from concussions.

So, what can be said about the psychological effects of concussions is that they hurt the social life and well-being of a person who had head trauma. Whether it is the slightest mood swing or depression and self-isolation, they all influence the quality of life, so, for this reason, it should not be ignored.

Howell, D., Osternig, L., Van Donkelaar, P., Mayr, U., & Chou. L. S. (2013). Effects of concussion on attention and executive function in adolescents. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 45 (6), 1030-1037.

Nelson, L. D., Janecek, J. K., & Mccrea, M. A. (2013). Acute clinical recovery from sport-related concussions. Neuropsychology Review, 23 (4), 285-299.

Ropper, A. H., & Gorson, K. C. (2007). Concussion. The New England Journal of Medicine, 356 (2), 166-172.

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