The confusion about concussions

All In The Mind

ABC listen

Life Sciences, Health & Fitness, Science

4.4 • 785 Ratings

🗓️ 7 June 2025

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Concussions are hard to diagnose, often get missed, and don't always get taken seriously.

And if you're not a professional athlete, it can be surprisingly hard to get clear information on how to manage and recover afterwards. Why?

The brain is your most important organ, after all!

This week, we try and make sense of the confusion around concussions.

This episode was first broadcast in October 2023.

Guests:Dr Lewis FreethPsychiatrist

Kate

Naznin Virji-BabulPhysical therapist and neuroscientistAssociate Professor, Department of Physical Therapy Faculty of MedicineUniversity of British Columbia

Shreya McleodPhysiotherapistLecturer, Australian Catholic UniversityPhD candidate, University of Newcastle

Credits:

Presenter/producer: Sana Qadar
Producer: Rose Kerr
Sound engineer: Russell Stapleton

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	ABC Listen, Podcasts, Radio, News, Music, and more.
0:07.3	Hey there, a heads up.
0:09.1	This episode is one from our archives.
0:11.9	The way to think about your brain is that it's very vulnerable.
0:17.3	And if you had to pick an organ, some guys would say it's the second most part.
0:22.7	If you had to pick an organ, which is most important to you, I think, I mean, it's who you are.
0:28.8	Yeah.
0:29.4	And so if that's damaged, then your whole experience of life is altered.
0:37.7	So I was in third year, Newcastle University, halfway through medical school.
0:42.6	This is Lewis.
0:43.8	And I'd just done four weeks placement in a place called St. Lucia and South Africa.
0:48.5	And this is Kate.
0:49.8	It was a beautiful, sunny Friday afternoon.
0:52.9	I just finished work for the week.
0:54.5	And on these particular days, several years apart and on separate continents,
0:59.0	they were both in great moods.
1:01.1	They were happy and excited for what lay ahead.
1:04.0	It was the first day of kind of backpacking around South Africa and Zambia
1:07.9	after I'd finished my placement.
1:09.8	And it was 35 degrees.
1:11.9	I had a long weekend coming up.
1:13.4	It was just like, I was just so ready to go home and start my long weekend.
	...

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