A substantial minority of patients do not recover fully after mild traumatic brain injury. Persistent post-concussion syndrome includes both cognitive and non-cognitive manifestations, yet DSM-5 and ICD-11 withdrew the syndrome as a distinct diagnosis and reorganized its persistent sequelae exclusively within neurocognitive categories....
✦ The floor
Discussion
Signed responses from readers of the wire.
No actionable change for audiology practice; this review addresses diagnostic classification disputes in post-concussion syndrome with only limited overlap with auditory or vestibular symptoms.
Audiologists treating patients with dizziness or auditory symptoms following head injury should be aware of ongoing definitional debates around post-concussion syndrome, as these affect diagnosis and referral pathways.
- 01Persistent post-concussion syndrome was removed from both DSM-5 and ICD-11, creating diagnostic ambiguity.
- 02Review highlights a 'neurocognitive gap' — a lack of clear cognitive benchmarks for diagnosis.
- 03Definitional disagreement may affect how patients with post-injury hearing or balance complaints are classified.
- 04Audiology-specific content is minimal; vestibular and auditory symptoms are not the primary focus.
- 05Calls for standardised diagnostic criteria for persistent post-concussion syndrome.
Removal of persistent post-concussion syndrome from DSM-5 and ICD-11 has created significant definitional disagreement among clinicians.
opinionpartially supported- PMID
- 42941544
- DOI
- 10.3390/jcm15208031.
- Journal
- Journal of Clinical Medicine
- Publication type
- review
- Evidence level
- 5
- Population
- Patients with persistent post-concussion syndrome (review of existing literature)
- Intervention
- Review of diagnostic definitions and neurocognitive criteria for persistent post-concussion syndrome
Primary outcomes
Definitional consistency across classification systems; Neurocognitive diagnostic gap characterisation