Mental Health in Concussion Management

Concussion recovery is complex and multi-faceted. Anxiety, depression, mood swings, feeling constantly dialed up or on edge, feeling a quick trigger to get angry or sad, uncontrollably sobbing for no reason (been there! 🙋‍♂️) - these are all very real and very common parts of the concussion recovery experience. Our physiology and our psychology are intimately linked, especially in the brain.

We as providers need to know when to refer out and whom to refer to. If you're using the Dizziness Handicap Inventory to measure symptoms, a score above 60 indicates a psychological component and therefore warrants a referral to a mental health specialist. Tying in a psychologist, mental health counselor or talk therapist can be a HUGE aspect of recovery for certain folks.

Concussion physical therapy is about the whole human. For so many people, it's about so much more than a specific treatment or rehab technique.

Graham, Madison & Staab, P & Lohse, M & McCaslin, Devin. (2020). A Comparison of Dizziness Handicap Inventory Scores by Categories of Vestibular Diagnoses. Otology & Neurotology. Publish Ahead of Print. 10.1097/MAO.0000000000002890.