Traumatic Brain Injury After Music-Associated Head Banging: A Scoping Review.
James B Meiling, David R Schulze, Emily Hines and 2 others
PMID 36123989WHAT IT FOUND
Thirteen case reports describe moderate-to-severe traumatic brain injuries, including subdural hematomas and artery dissections, in young men headbanging to music.
No mild injuries were reported. These are isolated anecdotes, not evidence of how common or predictable this injury is.
Key findings
01All 13 included studies were case reports of definite traumatic brain injury, with subdural hematoma being the most common mechanism.
02The review found no published case reports of mild traumatic brain injury resulting specifically from music-associated head banging.
03Concurrent risky behaviors like drug or alcohol use were not reported in the majority of the cases, leaving potential confounders unaddressed.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The evidence consists entirely of 13 case reports, which cannot establish incidence, prevalence, or causality. There is no denominator data (e.g., total number of people who headbang), so it is impossible to know how rare these injuries are. Concurrent substance use (alcohol/drugs) was not reported in most cases, which are known confounders for both injury risk and reporting bias. The review found no cases of mild TBI, which may reflect under-reporting of mild symptoms rather than a true absence of injury. The protocol was not pre-registered, and the search strategy was limited to the term 'head banging,' which may have missed relevant literature using different terminology.
Declared interests
The authors declare no conflicts of interest. The protocol was not published.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret these 13 case reports as evidence that music-associated head banging is a common cause of traumatic brain injury. The lack of mild TBI cases and the absence of population data mean the true risk is unknown, and these severe outcomes may be extremely rare events.