Xanthia Saganis, a doctoral student at East Carolina University in the Health Psychology Program at Thomas Harriot College of Arts and Science, focuses on clinical health, but studies movement disorders. Specifically, she is interested in sports-related traumatic brain injury (TBI) and factors that influence resistance or acceptance of reporting head injury or concussion symptoms.
In November, she was selected as the winner of the Graduate School-sponsored ECU Annual Three Minute Paper (3MT) Competition, where she explained her research proposal. Saganis will continue to participate in the Regional 3MT Competition at the Southern Council’s annual meeting in Dallas, Texas in March.
“I’m shaky,” she said. “It’s important that people learn how to talk about your research in a way that makes them understand and care about, so I jumped at the opportunity. I saw it as a good experience, not as a competition. That’s why it’s really exciting.”
Originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, she said she chose ECU for her clinical and research training experiences that she could participate in. She was fortunate to work under the direction of Dr. Eric Everhart, a professor in the Faculty of Psychology.
“I like how he branches out into mentees, allowing him the flexibility to follow their passions and study what they want,” Saganis said. “He nurtures what we want to do and teaches us about the reality of the field and what it will be.”
“The energy of her presentation blew me away,” Everhart said of Saganis’ 3MT presentation. “I was captivated.”
Saganis holds the trophy he won from the 3-minute thesis competition. (Photos contributed)
Everhart teaches and trains doctoral students to assess and manage patients with TBI. During his post-doctoral training, he assisted in dizziness and post-tests in players in the National Hockey League and National Football League. Since then, he and his students have been conducting research on caregivers and TBI. He said he has no awareness of what constitutes an injury and a concussion. One study showed that 25% of people reported injuries or concussions, but the number reached 75% when all symptoms were given.
Dr. Taylor Zlinden, alumni captain of the US Air Force and ECU, spent time studying the understanding of TBI people at the ECU. (Photos contributed)
It is important that there is an increased knowledge about concussion symptoms, especially for many schools and universities in North Carolina where baseline testing is forced. This will make coaches and other staff compare to when athletes get injured. He said there was a stigma in reporting injuries in the past.
“Athletes struggle to report for a variety of reasons. They don’t want to be removed from the game or lose their starting position,” he said. “We intentionally tried to lower our baseline scores to people, so if we get a concussion, we don’t know. Some well-known athletes are intentionally tanking the scores. But now there’s something better built into to detect it.”
He said there are people in the NHL and NFL who currently see signs of brain injury and concussion, but this is not necessarily the case in other sports.
The comprehensive theme of the research lab conducted by Everhart and former student Dr. Taylor Zlinden (MA ’19, Ph.D. ’22) focused on understanding people at TBI.
“After working in various ECU clinics, I came up with this idea,” said Zurlinden, now a US Air Force captain and clinical psychologist at Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho. “I have noticed that individual beliefs about TBI had a major impact on my predictions about my life and future happiness. Healthcare providers can also fall into traps of TBI misinformation, which can lead to recovery and recovery. I realized that it could have a negative impact on the outcome.”
Zurlinden said the misinformation includes the myth that it is dangerous to sleep after TBI, and that a person must remain in a dark, quiet room for several days after an injury.
“It’s very rare, but it’s possible to die while sleeping after TBI due to complications, but it’s actually important for people with TBI to get enough sleep. She said, “And , doing nothing and avoiding stimulation can make the recovery process more difficult and people can end up being susceptible for longer periods of time.”
As a lifelong sports fan and hockey player, Saganis learns more about head injuries from her experiences, learn about others playing hockey, watch the film “Concussion” and sought Will Smith. He said he was interested in staring at the forensic pathologist staring at him. The NFL is trying to suppress his research on chronic traumatic encephalopathy brain degeneration that professional soccer players suffer.
“That history has always been fascinating to me,” she said. “It can be more difficult to identify a concussion: a hidden injury caused by the rapid movement of the brain within the skull.”
In her presentation, Saganis said that between 1.6 and 3.8 million sports-related concussions are reported in the US each year, but this number is underestimated, with about half of concussions not reported. yeah.
Saganis said many people tend to avoid head trauma, and there is a disconnect between people with information and their knowledge making decisions about health care.
PhD student Xanthia Saganis will present at a three-minute dissertation conference at the main campus Student Center. (Photo: Rhett Butler)
He had seen firsthand an athlete indifferently about head injuries, and she intrigued her, and she wanted to learn about culture. Saganis will consider athletes’ knowledge of brain injury, other variables that may predict whether they are likely to report a concussion.
What she observes and makes hypotheses is that knowledge alone is not enough. She believes attitudes and beliefs about how serious the events of the injury are, personality traits, and the culture of taking down other teammates play a role in their decisions.
ECU’s 3MT Competition
Middle PhD student Xanthia Saganis has been declared the winner of the ECU’s three-minute thesis competition at the main campus student center in November.
(Photo: Rhett Butler)
Find out more about the competition
“We want to learn about attitudes and beliefs about concussions, so the intervention can target the psychosocial and cultural aspects that drive current health behaviors and decision-making,” she says. I did.
“Strict love attitudes are part of the sporting culture, but hiding brain injuries can be dangerous,” she said. “The risks over the years are substantial. Repeated concussions over time can increase the risk of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease.”
Saganis is optimistic that her research will help others in the future.
“I hope this will become a body of research that focuses on the psychological factors in health care decision-making,” she said. “I aim to help change the culture of sports in order to better respect the serious, long-term consequences of concussions, because ultimately, why put it at risk? ?”
As part of our clinical health practice, Saganis gains real-world experience at ECU psychological assessment and specialized services clinics. This non-profit training clinic provides patients with specialized, secret psychological services. Saganis conducts psychotherapy and assessment of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Next year, she will work more closely with Everhart at his clinic.
Upon earning his degree, Saganis hopes to become a board-certified clinical neuropsychologist. She said she would like to continue her research on TBI and sports-related concussions, and she also said she was interested in working with older people with dementia and former athletes with a long history of concussions.
