the American Osteopathic Association.
After a concussion, some individuals ex-
perience migraines and mental health is-
sues, such as depression, which can con-
tribute to longer recovery times. Yet re-
searchers have also found evidence
suggesting longer bounce back times are
associated with suffering from those con-
ditions prior to a head injury—raising some
questions for Neidecker’s group. Although
previous studies have reported a longer re-
covery period for girls, “what nobody has
brought up is that all these preexisting
[conditions] that seem to affect concussion
recovery are more prevalent in females,”
Neidecker says. “So maybe it’s actually not
the concussion that’s still giving them the
symptoms but the preexisting problems
that were exacerbated [by the injury].”
The research team’s analysis partially
supports this hypothesis—he and his col-
leagues examined the students’ medical
histories and found that the girls were more
likely to have previously suffered migraines
than the boys. They also suggest psycho-
logical factors, such as depression or anxi-
ety disorder, may play a role as well. In this
new work there was a slightly higher prev-
alence of mental illness in girls versus boys,
they note, but this difference was not sta-
tistically significant. Neidecker says he sus-
pects this effect might be more pronounced
in a larger sample, however.
Michael Collins, a concussion scientist
at the University of Pittsburgh Medical
Center who was not involved in this work,
points out that other factors could also
contribute to the disparity in recovery
times. His prior research has shown, for ex-ample, that women also tend to experience
more eye movement and visual stability is-
sues following a concussion than men,
which can require longer recovery times.
Other researchers have proposed poten-
tial biological explanations for the gender
difference such as women’s smaller necks,
which give them less strength to absorb
shock, and higher rates of glucose metabo-
lism (a process that generates the body’sFemales' smaller necks give them less strength to absorb shock.CREATASGETTY IMAGES