Traumatic Brain Injury in Sports: An International Neuropsychological Perspective. M. R. Lovell, R. J. Echemendia, J. T. Barth, and M. W. Collins. Lisse, The Netherlands: Swets & Zeitlanger, 2004. 510 pages.
The issue of sports-related traumatic brain injury (TBI) has received an increasing amount of professional and public attention in recent years, noting high-profile cases of professional athletes such as Muhammad Ali, Steve Young, and Troy Aikmen. Such stories have heightened public awareness of how TBI affects not only common people but also famous athletes who are often viewed as super-human individuals. This is not only the case with professional sports. Some recent high-profile high-school athletes with sports-related TBI have been the subject of regional and national news stories. It is within this context that the field of Sports Neuropsychology has emerged and grown at a rapid pace.
Traumatic Brain Injury in Sports is a timely and comprehensive up-to-date reference on this topic. The authors, all experts in their respective fields within sports neuropsychology and traumatic brain injury, cover a broad range of topics in great detail and thus provide the reader with a solid understanding of sports-related TBI. This book details the types and characteristics of brain injuries seen in professional, amateur, collegiate, and youth football, hockey, soccer, rugby, boxing, and equestrian sports. These sections provide the reader with a basic understanding of some of the most important issues in each of these sports, from which a more detailed literature review on any given topic can be pursued.
The book is organized into 4 sections: (1) "Basic Concepts" includes historical, epidemiological, neuroanatomic, neurophysiologic, imaging, and genetics issues; (2) "Neuropsychological Assessment" discusses models for a variety of professional, collegiate, and youth sports; (3) "Methodological Issues" includes a basic overview of experimental methods, important perspectives on psychometric challenges in serial assessment of athletes, computerized assessment techniques, and interpretation of results; (4) "Special Topics" includes ethical considerations, psychological adjustment in injured athletes, gender and cultural issues, and guidelines for neuropsychologists who wish to provide consultation services to sports organizations. The final chapter is an excellent synopsis that addresses one of the central issues in sports-related TBI: how to determine when an injured athlete is recovered and ready to return to play.
This publication is an important reference for anyone who works in the area of sports neuropsychology, sports medicine, pediatrics, and more generally any professional who evaluates and/or treats individuals with mild TBI regardless of the cause. The book discusses in detail challenges in sports-related brain injuries including problems in definitions of concussion, limitations of neuropsychological measures, approaches to measurement of change across serial assessments and practice effects, general methodological concerns in sports-related TBI research, and application of findings to clinical cases. Other topics include the need for preinjury baseline evaluation to more accurately determine the nature and degree of injury in any given athlete regardless of the sport or skill level. The chapters on biomechanics, pathophysiology, neuroimaging, and computerized assessment provide concise but detailed overviews that make the book also useful in training postdoctoral residents in neuropsychology or rehabilitation, residents in physical medicine and rehabilitation, and brain injury fellows.
Although there is some redundancy across chapters, this only reinforces key concepts and overall supports the intent of a reference book of this nature. In addition, the chapters are brief yet comprehensive. The material presented strikes a nice balance between research, clinical applications, and practical considerations, which is sometimes missing in publications of this type. The sections on ethical issues, psychological aspects, cultural diversity, and gender are particularly thoughtful additions. In sum, Traumatic Brain Injury in Sports is a comprehensive reference that rehabilitation professionals will find an important addition to their libraries.