Journal of primary health care
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INTRODUCTION By 2020, traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) are predicted to become the third largest cause of disease burden globally; 90% of these being mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). Some patients will develop post-concussion syndrome. AIM To determine whether the time between sustaining a mTBI and the initial assessment by a specialised concussion service, along with the post-concussion symptoms reported at the assessment, affected recovery time. ⋯ RESULTS Time from injury to initial assessment by a specialist concussion service was correlated with proportionally more psychological symptoms present at initial assessments (r = 0.222, P = 0.024); in particular, feeling depressed or tearful (r = 0.292, P = 0.003). Time to discharge was correlated with individual RPQ symptom proportions present at initial assessment for headaches (r = -0.238, P = 0.015), sensitivity to noise (r = 0.220, P = 0.026), feeling depressed or tearful (r = 0.193, P = 0.051) and feeling frustrated or impatient (r = 0.252, P = 0.003), along with the psychological cluster proportion (r = 0.235, P = 0.017) and the total RPQ score (r = 0.425, P < 0.001). CONCLUSION Prompt diagnosis and treatment of mTBI may minimise the severity of post-concussion symptoms, especially symptoms associated with mental health and wellbeing.