2012 study: does gender affect recovery from concussions?

in the 2012 study,  researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and the Vanderbilt Sports Concussion Center, groups of 40 male and 40 female concussed soccer players, found no gender differences in symptoms at baseline or in the first week after concussion, and were unable to replicate the findings of previous studies of mixed groups of athletes from a variety of sports, including the one authored by Dr. Colvin,1 which had reported small but significant gender differences, both at baseline in terms of symptoms and neurocognitive test scores (girls reported more headaches, fatigue, sleep difficulties, irritability, sadness, nervousness, feeling more emotional, feeling slowed down, and difficulty concentrating4 and on verbal memory tasks, while males perform better on tests of visual memory5, 6) and post-concussion (girls reporting a higher number of symptoms1,7 and performing more poorly on neurocognitive testing (significantly slower reaction times).1,7 

1. The study discussed in this article was ultimately published in the American Journal of Sports Medicine: Colvin AC, Mullen J, Lovell MR, West RV, Collins MW, Groh M. The Role of Concussion History and Gender in Recovery from Soccer-Related Concussion.  Am. J. Sports Med;37(9):1699-1704. 

4.  Covassin T, Swanik CB, Sachs M, Kendrick Z, Schatz P, Zillmer E, et. al. Sex differences in basesline neuropsychological function and concussion symptoms of concussed collegiate athletes.  Br J Sports Med 2006;40:923-927. 

5.  Covassin T, Schatz P, Swanik C. Sex differences in neuropsychological function and post-concussion symptoms of concussed collegiate athletes.  Neurosurgery:61:345-351.

6.  Weiss E, Kemmler G, Deisenhammer E, Fleischhacker W, Delazer M. Sex differences in cognitive functions.  Pers Individ Dif 2003;35:863-875.

7. Broshek DK, Kaushik T, Freeman JR, Erlanger D, Webbe F, Barth JT. Sex differences in outcome following sports-related concussion.  J Neurosurg;102:856-863.  

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