Minneapolis St. Paul Mental Health Blog

Mental Health scientists have studied the link between head traumas such as concussion and skull fracture and the subsequent risk of developing mental disorders.

They found that head injuries can increase the risk of developing certain mental disorders by up to 439 percent.

We all know about it as having a concussion, a head impact from playing football or any other contact sport that puts shock / pressure on the brain. 

The long term effects of it are yet to be fully understood, yet the research lends itself to reasons to be concerned.  Here is some very useful information from a recent Psychiatricadvisor.com article:
[During the last decade, medical science has elucidated a myriad of expressions of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), and shown that in some cases, there is the presence of cellular and ultrastructural alterations. mTBI, also known as a concussion, is expressed in how neurons and their supporting cells utilize their energy substrate, glucose, and this impairment is termed “metabolic vulnerability,” implying that sustaining a second impact, while still symptomatic, is detrimental to successful recovery or could lead to long-term effects.
Most instances of concussions are self-limited, and resolve within the first week. However, there is the chance that in about 10% of cases, a more prolonged clinical course will transpire, constituting post-concussion syndrome (up to 8 weeks post-injury), or the prolonged post-concussion syndrome (9 weeks and longer). Concussion symptoms usually consist of the following: Headache, memory loss, dizziness, balance abnormalities, sleep disturbance, visual abnormalities, poor school performance, and others.