Dozens of students and community members sat in on a discussion about concussion research at the University of Lethbridge Monday afternoon.
University of Montreal’s Jeff Caron delivered the presentation on his study about how athletes deal with concussions when they’re making their way back to the playing surface.
He said he was taken aback by how prevalent their troubles are — including isolation from the team and concerns about further injuries — among the number of athletes who have had serious concussion issues.
“We’re still learning about what this means and we’re not quite there yet about how we can help these people with these various psychosocial facets of concussion,” Caron said.
The University of Lethbridge is also completing a study using this data to look at whether athletes subconsciously play more conservatively when they are returning from a head injury.
“There’s some great work going on in the physiological realm of things, but we have not put the same emphasis on the psychological aspect of recovery. We know from previous research outside of concussions that the psychological impact of injury has a major effect on our athletes,” said associate professor Scott Rathwell.
The study is expected to be completed in about three months.
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