Experts recommend that young people who have suffered a concussion get one or two days of rest at home, until symptoms start resolving, before gradually returning to school and physical activity.
But scientific evidence to support this approach is sparse, and some doctors have recommended that young patients remain inactive for even longer periods after a concussion.
Now a randomized trial has compared the approaches and found that among a group of patients ages 11 to 22, those with a concussion who were prescribed strict rest for five days by staff members of an emergency department actually reported more symptoms than those told to rest for one or two days. Recovery was also slower for the group receiving stricter rest, researchers reported Monday in the journal Pediatrics.