The aim of this study was to systematically review clinical studies examining biofluid biomarkers of brain injury for concussion in athletes. Data sources included PubMed, MEDLINE, and the Cochrane Database from 1966 to October 2013. Studies were included if they recruited athletes participating in organized sports who experienced concussion or head injury during a sports-related activity and had brain injury biomarkers measured. Acceptable research designs included experimental, observational, and case-control studies. Review articles, opinion papers, and editorials were excluded. After title and abstract screening of potential articles, full texts were independently reviewed to identify articles that met inclusion criteria. A composite evidentiary table was then constructed and documented the study title, design, population, methods, sample size, outcome measures, and results. The search identified 52 publications, of which 13 were selected and critically reviewed. All of the included studies were prospective and were published either in or after the year 2000. Sports included boxing (six studies), soccer (five studies), running/jogging (two studies), hockey (one study), basketball (one study), cycling (one study), and swimming (one study). The majority of studies (92%) had fewer than 100 patients. Three studies (23%) evaluated biomarkers in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), one in both serum and CSF, and 10 (77%) in serum exclusively. There were 11 different biomarkers assessed, including S100β, glial fibrillary acidic protein, neuron-specific enolase, tau, neurofilament light protein, amyloid beta, brain-derived neurotrophic factor, creatine kinase and heart-type fatty acid binding protein, prolactin, cortisol, and albumin. A handful of biomarkers showed a correlation with number of hits to the head (soccer), acceleration/deceleration forces (jumps, collisions, and falls), postconcussive symptoms, trauma to the body versus the head, and dynamics of different sports. Although there are no validated biomarkers for concussion as yet, there is potential for biomarkers to provide diagnostic, prognostic, and monitoring information postinjury. They could also be combined with neuroimaging to assess injury evolution and recovery.

The effects of traumatic exposure have been researched for many years and studies have shown that the parts of the brain affected by sexually traumatic experiences in childhood are also linked to many physical and psychological problems, such as depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, somatic complaints and suicide. Neuroimaging studies have provided a breadth of evidence that childhood sexual abuse is related to structural changes in the brain. Taken together, childhood sexual abuse affects brain development, leading to differences in brain anatomy and functioning that have lifelong consequences for mental health. Several limitations of neuroimaging research on childhood sexual abuse are discussed, including a lack of refined and sensitive neuroimaging measures and problems interpreting results of structural imaged subjects with associated psychiatric conditions. Future, large‐scale studies are warranted to examine the type and severity of the sexual abuse and how each of the levels of childhood sexual abuse contributes to structural and functional changes. Furthermore, future studies are needed to control for comorbid psychiatric conditions in order to disentangle the effects of childhood sexual abuse from psychiatric conditions that damage brain development. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Key Practitioner Messages Childhood sexual abuse is linked to observable structural changes in the brain. These structural changes in the brain are associated with a myriad number of negative psychological effects. Research is limited in elucidating the role of childhood sexual abuse on brain development, as the bulk of the research has focused only broadly on child maltreatment.

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