[MicroMan]

Hi everyone,

This is my first post on this forum, though I’ve been reading (and re-reading!) many of the threads over the past year. Just the simple realisation that others have been impacted similarly has aided me in my struggle with coming to terms with my post-concussion self.

In recent months I’ve met with several Neurologists and Psychiatrists, and I thought this community might have some valuable insight and suggestions on my current situation. Before getting to that, here’s a bit of background info:

- 43 y old male currently enjoying everything PCS has to offer

- Incurred a concussion (age 41) deriving from a multiple car pile up (I was the meat in this car sandwich)

- I have been diagnosed with PCS (now at 20 months), depression, and mood disorder

- Currently highly intolerant of any activity (e.g. simple 10 min conversations, public settings, watching my children play sports, etc) are triggering events for lengthy recovery periods (typically range from 3-14 days; my brain literally feels as if it’s ran a marathon and about to collapse)

- During the recovery periods, days 1-4 involve depression, rumination, issues with anger and frustration (gets vented at my family, unfortunately), and increasingly intense headaches. After day 4, the headaches either plateau and/or taper off to their “normal” level (unfortunately they never stop). Also, following day 4, issues with depression, anger, etc., are greatly diminished or absent.

-Headaches have persisted constantly since the concussion. Prior, however, I rarely had a headache

So, as I mentioned above, I have seen a number of specialists. The general consensus is that my current headaches are caused by depression, and not the mTBI. However, it is also acknowledged that it is possible that residual injury/effects of the mTBI may be the cause, but unlikely. Unfortunately these opinions on the etiology of my current state are always provided in a report, and thusly I’ve been unable to ask any questions.

For me personally, this conclusion of depression being the root of my headache issues seems qualitative in nature. There appears to be no data to substantiate this assertion for either mTBI or depression. For me, being someone who asks questions and looks for data to support conclusions, I am very uncomfortable with this.

Here’s my question for the community: is there any type of imaging analysis that can aid in determining if headaches are being caused by an mTBI or, alternately, can conclusively show a lack of defects (i.e. depression most likely cause)? Note, I have had a standard MRI performed with no abnormalities identified. However, this is normal for people with mTBIs. I was wondering if there are more advanced imaging methods, such as functional MRIs or other analyses with 3/7 T MRI, would be possess improved ability to detect mTBI damage?

Unfortunately I’m not able to endure the impact a lengthy review of the literature would have, but it occurs to me that other community members may have asked this question themselves or have relevant knowledge that would be useful.

Thanks to all for taking to time to read the post. Best wishes.