Diving after multiple concussions

[SoccerJeni]

I have a friend who has had multiple concussions who has expressed an interest in diving. Is there any concern for her to dive? She has had 14 concussions. (I know, that's a bunch.)

 

[Tortuga68]

Wow that's a lot... was she a stunt double for Million Dollar Baby? I think one detail that might assist in providing an answer might be how recently and over what time period these occured, and maybe how they occured and/or were diagnosed/treated

 

[SoccerJeni]

Hum...I do not know all of the details. I do know that the majority of the concussions happened when she was in high school playing goalie for her soccer team. That has been roughly 8-10 years ago. However, there is a chance she's had more since, she just doesn't go to the doctor about it.

 

[Peter_C]

Hmmm...I have had a few bad concussions from wakeboarding and never even considered it an issue for diving

 

[Tortuga68]

The long term and/or cumulative effects of concussion aren't very well understood AFAIK... does she experience any current symptoms - headaches, dizziness, memory loss etc that could be related? Did she lose conciousness or suffer any amnesia immediately following any of the events? I suffered multiple concussions in my youth of varying grades - mostly sport-related as well - but am not aware of any diving-related after effects, or long-term impact in general (some may disagree!)

 

[SoccerJeni]

Well, I'm trying to get her to join the site, and she could probably provide more details about her symptoms...

 

[TSandM]

I'm going to give my usual answer . . . as the set of people who have had that many concussions is small, its intersection with the set of people who dive will be even smaller. I'm quite sure no one has any solid data to answer this question.

What we DO know is that concussions can produce subtle neuropsychiatric abnormalities that can persist for long periods of time -- problems with memory, concentration, and patience. If your friend does not experience any of these that she is aware of in her normal life, they are probably not severe enough to have a serious impact on diving. However, it is likely that narcosis will impact whatever compensatory mechanisms she may be using.

Tortuga's answers are very good as well -- some of it depends on how "concussion" was defined. The lay person's definition, and the medical definition can be quite different.

 

[SoccerJeni]

I'm going to give my usual answer . . . as the set of people who have had that many concussions is small, its intersection with the set of people who dive will be even smaller. I'm quite sure no one has any solid data to answer this question.

What we DO know is that concussions can produce subtle neuropsychiatric abnormalities that can persist for long periods of time -- problems with memory, concentration, and patience. If your friend does not experience any of these that she is aware of in her normal life, they are probably not severe enough to have a serious impact on diving. However, it is likely that narcosis will impact whatever compensatory mechanisms she may be using.

Tortuga's answers are very good as well -- some of it depends on how "concussion" was defined. The lay person's definition, and the medical definition can be quite different.

It makes sense that this is much more complicated than yes, she'll be fine or no she won't.

I know the 14 concussions were medically diagnosed concussions. Any incidents since then have not been medically checked out. Does that answer the lay person vs. medical definition question? I'm just not sure if my reply is helpful for what you were refering to.

 

[Tortuga68]

My non-MD opinion would be that it doesn't help - there are several grading systems for 'medically diagnosed' concussions, with varying severity; typically I think there are three gradings, let's call them mild, intermediate & severe for argument's sake, although there isn't any real agreement AFAIK

Diving aside, it's been a hot topic in sports (notably the various football codes) in recent years, regarding rehabilitation/treatment & ongoing effects. For example it used to be quite common (in Australian football at least) to send a suspected concussed player back on to the field to continue playing if they passed a (very limited - how may fingers am I holding up, what day is it?) neuro exam - now they are usually suspended from at least that game if not the following week

That doesn't have much to do with long term effects, but perhaps indicates a trend

I think we're a long way from a concensus, due to the limited data as Lynne noted above. The current trend seems to be towards conservatism