Ann Neurol. 2017 Sep 4. doi: 10.1002/ana.25036. [Epub ahead of print]
OBJECTIVE:To assess whether concussion in childhood or adolescence is associated with subsequent multiple sclerosis risk. Previous research suggests an association but methodological limitations included retrospective data collection and small study populations.
METHODS: The national Swedish Patient (hospital diagnoses) and Multiple Sclerosis registers were used to identify all MS diagnoses up to 2012 among people born from 1964, when the Patient Register was established. The 7292 patients with multiple sclerosis were matched individually with 10 people without MS by sex, year of birth, age/vital status at multiple sclerosis diagnosis, and region of residence (county), resulting in a study population of 80212. Diagnoses of concussion and control diagnoses of broken limb bones were identified using the Patient Register from birth to age 10 years or from ages 11 to 20 years. Conditional logistic regression was used to examine associations with multiple sclerosis.
RESULTS:Concussion in adolescence was associated with a raised risk of multiple sclerosis, producing adjusted odds ratios (and 95% confidence intervals) of 1.22 (1.05-1.42, p=0.008) and 2.33 (1.35-4.04, p=0.002) for one diagnosis of concussion, or more than one diagnosis of concussion, respectively, compared with none. No notable association with multiple sclerosis was observed for concussion in childhood, or broken limb bones in childhood and adolescence.
INTERPRETATION: Head trauma in adolescence, particularly if repeated, is associated with a raised risk of future multiple sclerosis, possibly due to initiation of an autoimmune process in the central nervous system. This further emphasises the importance of protecting young people from head injuries.
Thank a lot i been thinking a long time for this
When i was 9 years old (38 years ago) i fell from the first floor of my parents house into the cement.
Had head traumatism with lost of consciousness
So asepitc inflammation?
Obrigado
goodness I developed MS when I was 20, but I had a car accident involving concussion at 17.
I had a head injury then six weeks later my first MS symptom, which was severe room spinning vertigo. Then a few months later more MS symptoms.
"possibly due to initiation of an autoimmune process in the central nervous system"
Nothing in the findings points to this. Their beliefs about the nature of MS are used as facts! Of course there is immune system involvelment in every CNS injury. Does this mean that every immune action is autoimmune? Where are the data to support this lightly spelled nonsense?
Or, was the incident that culminated in a concussion actually caused by very early but unrecognized MS (balance, toe drag, etc)?
Despite having my suspicions about 9 years old at a birthday party at a colleague's house I banged my head heavily on the edge of the pool, I almost fainted, went to the hospital emergency room, then did an electroencephalogram, MRI, and I was observed for 48 hours.
The problem is who hasn't banged their head at some time.
I guess the cases… like you….are hospitalisations
Does a head injury make you more vulnerable to an infection, such as ear infection?
I had an ear infection after my head injury.
Yes MD, I agree with you, so I said that I had my reservations about this study. What I really had before MS and well defined was a recurrent infections Mononucleosis, otherwise I had nothing previously that was to have relationship with MS.
My daughter was hit in the side of her head with a golf club. Emergency room visit and scan was done…no lesions present. Within a year she had her first attack, scan was done, lesions present and was diagnosed with MS.
I had a concussion and then tbi from a bat attack, knocked unconscious.20 years later I am having MS complications the VA thinks.I am African-American a group most likely not to have MS, head trauma would seem more likely in my case to be the cause of my MS.
Nov 2007 my dad slipped on some ice and landed on his head. Few days later there was another snow storm and he slipped again on ice and landed on top of his head again. Six months later he was only able to walk for maybe forty minutes before falling. The next year it turned to being only able to walk for 15 minutes. The next year it was only being able to walk with a can. In 2013 could only walk if was holding on to the wall and than his legs would start to bow within five minutes. 2014 he was hospitalized for still unknown reasons but (I think PML) he could never walk again and lost a lot of cognitive function.
Him falling on his head multiple times caused this snowball reaction.
In my late teens I lived with a huy for a year. His favourite thing to do in punishing me was to grab a handful of my hair and slam the back of my head into a door frame. Or just plain old punch me in the side of the head. 25 years later, 6 surgeries to get my jaw working almost normal, but now have ms. Does make one wonder….