Objective
To examine
depression and baseline neurocognitive function and
concussion symptoms in male and female high school and college athletes.
Design
Cross sectional.
Setting
Athletes completed testing at a designated computer laboratory at high schools and colleges.
Participants
Participants included 1616 collegiate (n = 837) and high school (n = 779) athletes from 3 states participating in a variety of competitive sports.
Interventions
Participants completed the baseline Immediate Postconcussion Assessment and Cognitive Test (
ImPACT), symptom inventory, and Beck
Depression Inventory II (BDI-II).
Main Outcome Measures
Between-group comparisons for
depression groups on
ImPACT composite scores (verbal and visual memory, reaction time, motor processing speed), total symptoms, and symptom cluster (sleep, cognitive, emotional, somatic/migraine) scores. Between-group comparisons for age and sex on BDI-II,
ImPACT, total symptoms, and symptom cluster scores.
Results
The severe
depression group scored worse on visual memory and reported more total, somatic/migraine, cognitive, emotional, and sleep symptoms than less depressed groups. High school athletes reported more somatic/migraine symptoms than collegiate athletes, whereas collegiate athletes reported more emotional and sleep symptoms than high school athletes. Women had higher verbal memory and reported more cognitive, emotional, and sleep symptom clusters compared with men. Women outperformed men on verbal memory, whereas collegiate athletes outperformed high school athletes on processing speed.
Conclusions
Athletes with severe
depression scored lower on visual memory than those with minimal
depression. Athletes with severe
depression report more
concussion symptoms than athletes with minimal and moderate
depression scores. Symptoms of
depression should be included in baseline assessments to help disentangle
depression from
concussion symptoms.
