Diagnostic terminology is not associated with contact-sport players' expectations of outcome from mild traumatic brain injury

Primary objective - To investigate the influence of the diagnostic terms ‘concussion’ and ‘mild traumatic brain injury’ (mTBI) on contact-sport players’ injury perceptions and expected symptoms from a sport-related mTBI. It was hypothesized that contact-sport players would hold more negative injury perceptions and expect greater symptom disturbance from a sport-related injury that was diagnosed as an ‘mTBI’ compared to ‘concussion’ or an undiagnosed injury. Methods and procedures - One hundred and twenty-two contact-sport players were randomly allocated to one of three conditions in which they read a sport-related mTBI vignette that varied only according to whether the person depicted in the vignette was diagnosed with concussion (n = 40), mTBI (n = 41) or received no diagnosis (control condition; n = 41). After reading the vignette, participants rated their injury perceptions (perceived undesirability, chronicity and consequences) and expectations of post-concussion syndrome (PCS) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms 6 months post-injury. Main outcomes - There were no significant differences in contact-sport players’ injury perceptions or symptom expectations from a sport-related mTBI when it was diagnosed as an mTBI, concussion or when no diagnosis was given. Conclusions: Diagnostic terminology does not appear to have a potent influence on symptom expectation and injury perceptions in contact-sport players