Women may be more susceptible to traumatic brain injuries

Washington women who have sustained head injuries may be interested to learn that they could be at increased risk for serious outcomes like concussions. Some reports indicate that even though men’s brain injuries receive heightened attention due to the concussion risks associated with typically-male sports like football, women often suffer these kinds of injuries at greater rates.

Medical experts say that the combination of women’s large brains and relatively smaller necks places them in increased danger of experiencing whiplash, and the ill effects of such brain trauma may last longer than they would in men. One analysis revealed that although a group of male concussion sufferers regained normal brain function in about six weeks after getting hurt, women continued to suffer cognitive issues after the same time frame had passed.

According to researchers, girls who play sports in high school sustain concussions at twice the rate of male athletes at the same level. Potentially further compounding the issue may be the fact that women’s higher estrogen levels can induce heightened neural susceptibility to injury. The director of the Stanford Concussion and Brain Performance Center also admits that science is behind when it comes to studying the impacts of concussions in women.

When people suffer head injuries, they can have lasting impacts that make life permanently harder. Serious issues like depression may impair someone’s efforts to pursue a career or care for their family. These injuries may also be associated with significant medical diagnosis and treatment costs. While concussions and other such injuries are often associated with contact sports, they frequently occur in car accidents or sudden falls. A person who has received a brain injury as the result of another party’s negligence may want to have the help of an attorney in seeking compensation for the losses that have been incurred.