It’s March, and that means it’s Brain Injury Awareness Month. The Brain Injury Association of America (BIAA) campaign theme this year is “My Brain Injury Journey” to give a voice and support to people who have experienced either an acquired brain injury (ABI), which can result from birth defects, strokes, infectious diseases and brain tumors, or a traumatic brain injury (TBI), which result from a physical accident or incident, such as a hit to the head, fall, collision or extreme shake or jolt. Mild TBIs, or what we call concussions, are too often mistakenly considered minor injuries, when in fact, symptoms of a concussion can be very severe, long-lasting, debilitating and in need of specific medical care.
Most of us never imagine that our lives could be impacted by a brain injury, but the BIAA reports that at least 2.8 million people sustain brain injury each year in the United States. We should all inform ourselves about how brain injuries occur, and how to reduce them. Awareness is also important if we want to reduce the number of incidents and keep our brains healthy.
To help increase awareness about brain injuries during Brain Injury Awareness Month 2025, we’ve updated our “Five Fast Facts About Concussions and Brain Health”.
1. Concussions Happen More Often Than You Think.
According to the BIAA someone in this country will experience a brain injury every nine seconds. That’s a lot of cases! How does this happen so often?
Sudden bumps or jolts can cause the brain to bounce back and forth in the skull, causing injuries of varying degrees. Concussions are TBIs that can cause functional changes in the way our brains work. Concussions most often occur as a result of blows to the head during:
- Sports and recreational activities
- Car accidents
- Slips and falls
- Military combat involving explosives
- Workplace accidents
You can also incur a concussion from simple household mishaps, like accidentally walking into a door and banging your head. While most concussions are luckily not life-threatening, long-term effects of TBIs can affect some patients and require prolonged medical care.
2. Concussion Symptoms Aren’t Always Obvious.
When they happen, concussions may or may not present themselves in obvious ways. TBIs can cause the symptoms you might expect, such as:
- Headaches and/or migraines
- Dizziness
- Nausea
- Ringing in the ears or hearing changes
- Vision problems
Unfortunately, concussions can sometimes go undetected because their symptoms may not appear related to a head injury. These symptoms can include:
- Sleep difficulties or irregularities
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Slower-than-normal reaction time
“Although about 67% of concussions resolve most symptoms and deficits within 3 months, about 22% have ongoing symptoms and deficits over a year past injury,” says Medical Director and President of Mid-Atlantic Concussion (MAC) Alliance, Vincent Schaller, MD, DABFM, CIC. After 2 months, ongoing symptoms and deficits are called Post-Concussion Syndrome (PCS) or Persistent Post-Concussive Symptoms (PPSC). If you or someone you care about has had a serious head jolt of some sort, early medical assistance can mean the difference between full recovery and living with some of those lingering longer-term and unpleasant symptoms. MAC Alliance utilizes advanced screening tools to help facilitate early diagnosis of concussions. Prompt assessment means that we can establish individualized brain injury rehabilitation programs to maximize patient outcomes.
3. Alcohol and Caffeine Can Impact Concussion Recovery.
Two of the most frequent questions we are asked are, “Can you drink alcohol after a concussion?” and “Can you have caffeine if you have a concussion?”
Alcohol and Concussions
After a concussion or other TBI, your tolerance for alcohol can be reduced. You may also be more sensitive to alcohol. Even just the one or two drinks you might normally consume over the course of an evening in the past can be too much while your brain is healing. That’s because alcohol changes our brain chemistry, at least temporarily, and alcohol is a neurotoxin which can potentially damage brain cells. When you compound this with the issues that can be caused by a traumatic brain injury (TBI), it means that even moderate alcohol consumption can negatively affect the brain as it is trying to heal.
Caffeine and Concussions
Consuming too much caffeine when your brain is recovering from a concussion or other TBI can interfere with your recovery. Any temporary boost is short-lived, and then the brain becomes depleted of the energy it needs to heal itself from its injuries. It can result in neurofatigue, sleep troubles, migraines and other exacerbated PCS symptoms. According to the Mayo Clinic, a safe amount of caffeine for most healthy adults is up to 400 mg. a day. But for concussed patients, Dr. Schaller asks that they limit their daily intake to no more than 100 mg., which is roughly what an 8-oz. cup of black coffee contains. (Read more about caffeine and TBIs.)
4. Screen Time Impacts Concussion Recovery.
Previously we have reported on new research from the University of Massachusetts that supported reducing screen time for post-concussion patients to help reduce recovery times. The findings suggested that avoiding screen time in the first 48 hours of acute-concussion recovery may greatly shorten the duration of concussion symptoms. To allow for important cognative brain rest following a concussion, Dr. Schaller prescribes reduced electronic screen time with little brain stimulation for all his post-TBI patients. Beyond stimulating the injured brain too much, screen use can hamper the initial concussion-recovery process in another way too. For instance, the rapid eye movement involved with watching continually-refreshing LED screen pixilation can cause eye muscle strain for someone who has just suffered a TBI. In addition, backlighting from most screens and the loud noise from some electronic devices may also cause other negative symptoms in post-concussive patients, such as headaches or nausea.
5. Driving Skills Can Be Impacted by a Concussion or TBI.
During the first 24 to 48 hours after a concussion or TBI, the injured person should avoid driving to protect themselves and others on the road. “Let someone else do the driving, and let your brain rest,” says Dr. Schaller. A driver’s ability to make critical, split-second decisions is vital to reduce the risk of accidents. When you add the effects of a concussion or lingering persistent post-concussion symptoms (PPCS). Sometimes, even after symptoms begin to diminish, patients can still experience problems while driving, such as:
- Vision problems
- Balance issues
- Nausea
- Slowed reaction times
Learning More About the Brain and Concussions
The Brain Injury Association of America (BIAA) provides detailed information on the complex parts of the brain and how each has its specific task, controlling how we walk, talk, eat and balance, make decisions, process information and more. If you’re interested in learning more about brain injuries, including about treatment, diagnosis and support for patients and families, visit www.biausa.org or call the organization at 1-800-444-6443. You can also see what events the BIAA has planned for Brain Injury Awareness month here.
Find a Concussion Diagnosis & Treatment Center in the Mid-Atlantic Region.
There are many MAC Alliance Concussion Centers throughout Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey and Virginia—and we offer telemedicine in New York too. We provide traumatic brain injury assessment via today’s most comprehensive brain-testing tools, as well as rehabilitation therapy, treatment protocols and long-term care management. For your convenience, we offer both in-office and secure telemedicine options for treatment services.
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