Cause And Effect Essay On Concussions In School

Oh, How Fragile We Can Be.

The effects of concussions can be deep-rooted within the brain and hard to get rid of. A concussion is caused by a hard blow to the head that causes the brain to swell. “Couch said it is important to remember that the brain might be fragile, but it also bounces back from injury incredibly well. He said that to really look at the permanence of injuries we would need to have studies that look out 20, 30, or even 40 years after an injury” (“Effects of concussions”). Receiving a concussion negatively affects future health by changing the way people learn, causing post-concussion syndrome, and leading to dementia in old age.

Concussions have a detrimental effect on how a student performs in school. One study that

shows the negative effects of concussions in students says that ¨[c]oncussed students typically return to school within a week after injury, while their brains are likely still recovering.

Anecdotally, students with concussions report difficulties with schoolwork, including increased required effort, poorer performance, and symptom exacerbation” (Wasserman, Erin B., et al.). The quote depicts how after a concussion, the concussed person can have long lasting issues in school and in the way their brain functions. It also states how the brain needs a longer time to recover or the concussed person will be unable to work as fluidly as they did before. Another article says that concussions can harm students’ grades, specifically their GPAs, when it states, “Concussion can lead to temporary alterations in neurocognitive functioning [21,22] but it is unclear how this injury impacts school performance. College athletes who suffered

multiple concussions had significantly lower grade-point averages (GPAs) than athletes with no concussions [23] but results were not adjusted for potential covariates or pre-concussion GPA. A randomized controlled trial found that strict rest of 5 days (no school, work, or physical activity) versus 1–2 days resulted in slower symptom recovery...” (Russell, Kelly, et al. Pg. 2). The quote portrays how side effects can occur after a concussion and these side effects can cause a prolonged issue with the way students retain information. It also discussed how experiencing concussions more often causes even more issues within the cognitive region of the brain.
After receiving a concussion, the recipient may develop a prodrome that harms overall health called post-concussion syndrome.

Concussions have many side effects and a common one is called post-concussion syndrome; “Post-concussion syndrome is a complex disorder in which various symptoms — such as headaches and dizziness — last for weeks and sometimes months after the injury that caused the concussion” (“Post-Concussion Syndrome”). The author is trying to show how the consequences of concussions could possibly vary in severity and the symptoms, “headaches and dizziness”, can harm the body. The quote also depicts how concussions can lead to symptoms that the patient has to wait out while they are in pain. In another quote by Kelly Russell, post-concussion syndrome is describes as a “...slowed processing speed may impair academic performance [19,20], therefore students with concussion may be at risk of falling behind in the classroom. Together, these issues could result in students trying to work harder in an attempt to make up missed school work, which may exacerbate concussion symptoms.” (Russell, Kelly, et al. Pg. 2). The issues caused by post-concussion syndrome can harm the brain and make it difficult to think, therefore causing issues in the workforce and classroom. Linking back to the first paragraph, concussions affect students and their ability to focus and learn while they are experiencing, for example,

headaches.
As well as causing post-concussion syndrome and learning issues, concussions cause impairment to overall health and may lead to dementia in old age. One study about post-concussion syndrome talks about the risk of dementia and the quote says that “[t]he study, published in JAMA Neurology and conducted by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), found that those with moderate to severe TBI at 55 or older, or mild TBI — also called a concussion — at 65 or older, had an increased risk of dementia” (Levy). The quote demonstrates how concussions have side effects, such as dementia, that may not show up right away, but could in late adulthood. Attenuation of memory due to concussions can help doctors make a conclusion about how certain areas of the brain react to concussions. A study was done on people who had received concussions, and the data showed that “[i]n the study, 51,799 patients with trauma, or 31.5 percent, had TBI. Of those, 8.4 percent developed dementia, compared with 5.9 percent of patients with NTT. The average time from trauma to dementia diagnosis was 3.2 years; and it was shorter in the TBI group compared to the NTT group” (Levy). Like in the previous quote, Levy states how the side effects of concussions can appear late after the actual incident and still debilitating the patient by causing dementia. This study shows how concussions can cause dementia about three years after an accident. It also depicts how concussions need to be tended to or the patient may develop dementia.
Acquiring a concussion can be harmful to future health by altering the way students learn, leading to post-concussion syndrome, and generating dementia in old age. A quote by John Fleischman tells the reader that “[t]o prevent closed brain injuries, you should wear a helmet when bicycling, driving a race car, fighting in infantry, [and] playing tackle football…” (10) People need to spread the word about concussions in order to stay away from the harms and side effects of concussions, like how they lead to post-concussion syndrome or difficulties while learning.