By: Dionne Sellick

Recovery following concussion is a balance between activity and rest while managing stress.  Without proper rest and management, concussion recovery can become prolonged with symptoms increasing over time.

The Centre of Disease Control, has guidelines to help gauge return to activity as well as direct medical care paying close attention to risk factors such as previous concussions, diagnosis of depression and anxiety.  Your OT can help guide you through evidence based practice, but for more information please refer to the CDC guidelines as follows: https://www.cdc.gov/headsup/providers/return_to_activities.html

Medical Care
Appropriate diagnosis, referrals, and patient and family/caregiver education are critical for helping individuals with concussion aka mild TBI (mTBI) achieve optimal recovery and to reduce or avoid significant adverse health outcomes.

However, diagnosing mTBIs can be challenging as symptoms of mTBI are common to those of other medical conditions and the onset and/or recognition of symptoms may occur days or weeks after the initial injury.
Therefore, CDC has collaborated with multiple organizations and leading experts to develop clinical guidelines and tools for diagnosis and management of patients with MTBI.