Depression and concussion can overlap and compound each other People with depression and concussion have worse symptoms for both EEG scans show their brains are more disrupted than patients with either condition alone FRIDAY, Oct. 18, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- Depression can make it tougher for athletes to recover from a , and vice versa, a new study finds. Student athletes who have both concussion and depression have significantly worse symptoms for both conditions, researchers reported recently in the journal .
What's more, electrical signals in the brain are more disrupted among people with both concussion and depression than among those with only one of these conditions, the researchers noted. “We wanted to measure -- both subjectively and objectively -- whether these two neurological conditions also have a compounding effect on each other, and our study demonstrated that they do,” said lead researcher , a doctoral candidate in kinesiology with Penn State. For the study, researchers studied 10 male and 25 female college athletes.
All received EEG brain scans and underwent screenings for concussion and depression symptoms. Those who had both depression and concussion reported nearly twice as many symptoms of depression as those who had either condition alone, results showed. Likewise, those with both depression and concussion reported significantly worse and more prolonged post-concussion symptoms than those who suffered a concussion but no depression.
The EEG brain sca.