Neurologists Offer Guide on Athletes' Head Injuries

A team of neurologists has given school athletic groups a heads-up, urging coaches to take mild concussions more seriously and conduct tests to measure the severity of the players' injuries on the field.

"There's no such thing as a 'minor' concussion," said Dr. James P. Kelly, a neurologist and the lead author of the study published this month in the American Academy of Neurology . "Repeated concussions can cause permanent damage to the brain," he said.

One-fifth of high school football players sustain a concussion each season, according to the report. Among children and adolescents, brain injury is the most common injury in winter sports such as hockey and ice skating. The report defines a concussion as a trauma-induced alteration in mental status that may or...