Concussion Recovery may be Fastened by Restricting Screen Time

Restricting screen time of computer, phone, and TV screens after concussion in young adults may help in a shorter duration of symptoms, as per a study at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, published in JAMA Pediatrics. Concussion invites almost 2.5 million people to the emergency department every year, especially among the age group 10 to 19 years. At least 15% of high schoolers had reported being diagnosed at least once with a concussion in 2017.

Generally, a period of complete cognitive and physical rest is recommended for 24 to 48 hours following a concussion diagnosis as per The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and the International Concussion in Sports Group. However, the exact reason for what constitutes cognitive rest during this period is unclear.

"It's one thing parents and children always ask in the emergency department. Is screen time allowed? The average American teen spends as much as seven hours a day in front of a screen, not including time spent doing schoolwork, and many clinicians caution against screen time following a concussion. We're still learning how to treat concussions and there are no clear recommendations regarding screen time. Nobody has yet looked at this question in a rigorous way. We wanted to get a better handle on this question, so we conducted a randomized clinical trial," says the lead author Theodore E. Macnow, MD, assistant professor of pediatrics.

Screen time and Concussion

The study was thereby examined 125 young adults aged 12 to 25 years from June of 2018 to February of 2020 who presented with a concussion to the Emergency Department at UMass Memorial Medical Center, the clinical partner of UMass Chan Medical School in Worcester.

The participants in the first group were exposed to limited screen time for 48 hours immediately after suffering a concussion. On the other, the second group was allowed any form of the screen so long as it didn't induce symptoms. Any work and schoolwork were avoided for the first 48 hours in both groups.

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It was found that reduced screen time had a significantly shorter duration of symptoms than those who were permitted screen time. On average, this group experienced a median time of eight days until symptom resolution compared to 3.5 days for the group that abstained from screen time.

"These findings support the conclusion that brief screen time abstinence following a concussion is associated with a faster recovery. Given this data, preliminary clinical recommendations should be to limit screen time. It's not clear why screen time exacerbated concussion symptoms but there are a lot of reasons to suspect it's not good. These findings suggest that a larger, more diverse, multicenter study is warranted to see if the results are consistent," says Macnow.

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Source-Medindia