A Canadian researcher who co-led an international team's work to standardize criteria to diagnose concussion says the effort is aimed at providing equitable care for patients whose mild brain injury may go undetected.
Noah Silverberg, an associate psychology professor at the University of British Columbia, was among clinician scientists including emergency room doctors, neurosurgeons and pediatricians who replaced what he calls wildly inconsistent criteria.
Silverberg says a definition of what is also called mild traumatic brain injury was published in 1993 by the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine, or the A-C-R-M, but is now outdated.
His paper outlining the new standardized criteria, co-authored by a neuropsychologist from the Harvard-affiliated Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital on behalf of the A-C-R-M, was published last week in Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.
Silverberg says diagnosing concussions is tricky because symptoms can overlap with other conditions so health-care providers should confirm if and how a concussion occurred and rely more on the signs they see in someone who could be confused or can't remember how they were injured.
The new criteria incorporate a clinical exam that tests memory, concentration, balance and vision and also emphasize the need for awareness about concussion from intimate partner violence.