Concussion Center evaluates and treats Alton patients with concussion and mild TBI. That includes old head injuries that were never diagnosed. Vestibular and oculomotor testing still identifies dysfunction years after an untreated injury. Both respond to targeted rehabilitation rather than to time.
Alton is the shortest drive to our office of any Illinois community we treat. It is also a place where one pattern turns up often: a head injury years ago that nobody ever called a concussion.
Could an old head injury have been a concussion?
Roughly a third of athletes, asked directly, report a past head injury with concussion symptoms that was never diagnosed at the time. That figure comes from research on people who had reason to be paying attention. In the general adult population it is very unlikely to be lower.
This matters because prior concussion is one of the strongest predictors of a hard recovery from the next one. Someone may come in after a minor collision with symptoms that seem out of proportion. That person is frequently on their second or third injury, not their first.
So the history we take goes back further than the event that brought you in. Falls, sports, a car accident in your twenties, an assault, a fall from a ladder — none of which were called concussions at the time.
Why nobody called it one
Loss of consciousness happens in only about 5 to 9 percent of concussions. It does not predict who develops persistent symptoms — a 1,507-athlete study found that recurrent injury, amnesia, concentration difficulty, insomnia and light sensitivity all predicted post-concussion syndrome. Loss of consciousness did not. Concussion without loss of consciousness sets out the evidence.
In most real injuries, no Glasgow Coma Scale is recorded and no loss of consciousness is documented. Often no scan is done at all. Add that up, and the result is predictable: a genuine brain injury with no paperwork saying so.
Can a concussion be diagnosed years later?
A late assessment is worth considerably more than none. Vestibular and oculomotor testing identify dysfunction that persists for years after an untreated injury. Both respond to targeted rehabilitation rather than to time.
Cognitive screening, symptom inventories and, where appropriate, biomarker work fill in the rest. Diagnosis and testing covers what each part is for. The long-term effects page covers what untreated injury does over time.
Does sleep affect concussion recovery?
Sleep is disrupted after most concussions, and it is not a side issue. The brain’s clearance and repair processes run mostly during sleep. Someone getting four broken hours is recovering against a headwind nobody has addressed.
It also drives the symptoms directly. Poor sleep worsens concentration, mood, headache and light sensitivity. All of these then get attributed to the injury itself and treated as evidence that recovery has stalled.
Fixing the sleep first frequently improves several symptoms at once. It is usually the cheapest intervention available.
When should you go to the ER after a head injury?
Worth stating plainly on a page like this. A headache that keeps worsening, repeated vomiting, a seizure, weakness or numbness down one side, slurred speech, confusion that is getting worse, or increasing drowsiness are emergency symptoms.
Those are not reasons to book an appointment. They are reasons to go to an emergency department. A scan that was normal earlier does not change that if the picture is getting worse now.
What goes back to your own physician
We write to your primary care physician with the findings and the plan, unless you ask us not to. That is not a formality. Persistent post-concussion symptoms interact with sleep, mood and medication, and someone needs the whole picture.
Where the findings point outside our scope, we make that referral rather than manage the problem inadequately here. Examples are a vestibular problem needing dedicated therapy, or a mood disorder needing proper treatment.
If the neck is being treated too
A good number of people arrive already having treatment for neck pain from the same event. That is sensible, and occasionally it causes a problem: the headache gets claimed by both plans and reviewed by neither.
We are explicit about which part we are treating and what should be attributed to the cervical (neck) side. That way the two plans do not quietly duplicate each other or leave a gap between them.
Fuel, fluid and the unglamorous part
Recovery has a metabolic cost. Dehydration and skipped meals reliably worsen headache and concentration in the weeks afterward. It is the least interesting advice on this page and among the most consistently effective.
Alcohol is worth avoiding for longer than people expect. That is because the injured brain is more sensitive to it, and because it disrupts the sleep the recovery depends on.
Getting seen quickly
Alton is close enough that a same-week appointment is normally workable. There is no benefit to waiting for symptoms to settle first — the assessment is more useful while they are present.
If symptoms are getting worse rather than leveling off, that is a reason to be seen sooner. It is worth saying so on the phone rather than accepting the next routine slot.
Frequently asked questions
My injury was years ago. Is there any point?
Yes. Vestibular and oculomotor dysfunction persist and remain treatable long after the event. Identifying them changes what can be done: long-term effects of concussion.
I never lost consciousness, so was it really a concussion?
It could well have been. Loss of consciousness occurs in a small minority and does not define the injury: the evidence.
I have had more than one head injury. Does that change things?
It does, and it is worth telling us about all of them. Prior injury is among the stronger predictors of a prolonged recovery: what happens in the brain.
How far is the clinic from Alton?
About thirty minutes over the Clark Bridge and I-270 to 4477 Woodson Rd, Suite 105, beside Lambert Airport with parking at the door.
Does the brain ever fully heal after a concussion?
Not reliably on its own, and waiting is not a treatment. Vestibular and oculomotor dysfunction can persist for years after an untreated injury. Both respond to targeted rehabilitation rather than to time. That is why a late assessment is worth considerably more than none. Fixing disrupted sleep first often improves several symptoms at once. Avoiding alcohol protects the sleep that recovery depends on.
Why can a minor collision cause late concussion symptoms?
Symptoms that seem out of proportion to a minor collision are a common one, especially in someone with earlier head injuries. Poor sleep, trouble concentrating, low mood, headache and light sensitivity tend to travel together. Poor sleep makes the others worse. A headache that keeps worsening, repeated vomiting, a seizure, weakness or numbness down one side, slurred speech or increasing drowsiness are emergency signs. Go to an emergency department.
Which doctor should see a concussion after earlier head injuries?
A physician who takes a history reaching back past the latest injury, then tests the systems involved. That means vestibular and oculomotor testing, cognitive screening, a symptom inventory and, where appropriate, biomarker work. The findings and plan should go to your primary care physician. Anything outside that scope, such as dedicated vestibular therapy or treatment for a mood disorder, should be referred rather than managed inadequately.
Getting here from Alton
Concussion Center
4477 Woodson Rd, Suite 105, St. Louis, MO 63134
Monday–Friday, 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM
From Alton, US 67 south over the Clark Bridge, then US 367 and I-270 west toward the airport — around thirty minutes outside peak.
Related reading: concussion treatment for Edwardsville, IL patients and concussion treatment for Glen Carbon, IL patients.