Experts at the McMaster University believe that doctors and the general public may not be taking the threat of concussions very seriously. These common head injuries can lead to massive, negative side-effects, most of which can be prevented by a medical examination done on time. In the new investigation, it was determined that children who were diagnosed with concussions tended to spend fewer days in the hospitals than their peers who were diagnosed with other brain injuries, and also that they tended to return to school earlier. The findings appear in the February issue of the respected scientific journal Pediatrics, e! Science News reports.

“Even children with quite serious injuries can be labeled as having a concussion. Concussion seems to be less alarming than 'mild brain injury' so it may be used to convey an injury that should have a good outcome, does not have structural brain damage and symptoms that will pass,” MU School of Rehabilitation Science Associate Clinical Professor Carol DeMatteo says. The expert is also an occupational therapist, as well as an associate member of the CanChild Center for Childhood Disability Research. The expert argues that a concussion is, in fact, a mild brain injury that could have severe consequences over time.

The MU team focused on analyzing the medical records of 434 children, who were admitted and treated in the McMaster Children's Hospital in Hamilton over a period of two years. About 341 of the test subjects had received the diagnostic “traumatic brain injury,” while 32 percent of these children had been labeled as having a concussion. DeMatteo and her MU team were sponsored by the Ontario Neurotrauma Foundation (ONF), and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). The main find of the study was that, regardless of the actual severity of their injury, kids who were diagnosed with concussions tended to be kept in the hospitals for shorter time frames than others.

“Our study suggests that if a child is given a diagnosis of a concussion, the family is less likely to consider it an actual injury to the brain. These children may be sent back to school or allowed to return to activity sooner, and maybe before they should. This puts them at greater risk for a second injury, poor school performance and wondering what is wrong with them,” the study leader reveals. DeMatteo believes that one possible way of making parents understand the severity of the term concussion is to replace it with the words “mild traumatic brain injury.”