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Brain Injury Screening Tool

HELPS Brain Injury Screening Tool

The HELPS screener is a five-question tool developed to flag adults whose current symptoms may stem from an old, unrecognized, or downplayed head injury. Answer the questions below and your result updates live.

H

Have you ever hit your head or been hit on the head?

Think across your full lifetime, including sports, falls, vehicle accidents, assault, abuse, blast exposure, or violent shaking that may not have seemed serious at the time.

E

Were you ever seen in the emergency room, hospital, or by a doctor because of a head injury?

Medical evaluation can suggest a more serious event, but some people with meaningful injuries were never formally treated.

L

Did you ever lose consciousness or have a period of feeling dazed, confused, disoriented, or unable to remember events around the injury?

A person can have a brain injury without fully blacking out, so feeling "out of it" or having memory gaps matters too.

P

Do you currently have any of these problems in daily life that started after, or clearly worsened after, the injury?

Select every issue that applies.

S

Have you had any significant sicknesses or oxygen-deprivation events that could affect the brain?

Examples: stroke, seizures, meningitis, brain tumor, overdose, strangulation, choking, carbon monoxide poisoning, near drowning, or other loss-of-oxygen events.

+

How much are these issues affecting your life right now?

This helps personalize your result and the strength of our recommendation to follow up.

Why this matters

The CDC estimates that 1.7 million Americans sustain a TBI each year, and up to 40% of those go on to develop chronic pituitary dysfunction that shows up years later as low testosterone, thyroid abnormalities, adrenal insufficiency, or growth hormone deficiency.

Most patients don't connect current symptoms to an old concussion, a bar fight, a car wreck, or a blast exposure. The HELPS questionnaire is designed to surface exactly that pattern so it can be evaluated properly.

What a positive screen typically means

  • A past event plausibly linked to brain injury
  • An altered-consciousness or severity marker at the time
  • Two or more ongoing symptoms that started or worsened after the event

A positive screen is not a diagnosis. It's a signal that a full TBI-focused evaluation (including pituitary and hormone labs) is likely to be high-value.

A screen is the start, a proper evaluation is the answer.

Asymmetric Health runs the Millennium TBI Protocol developed by Dr. Mark Gordon: a structured evaluation that measures pituitary function, hormone cascades, inflammation, and neurotransmitter pathways after brain injury. If your screen is positive, that's the conversation to have.

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About HELPS

What is the HELPS screening tool?

HELPS is a five-question screener developed to identify adults whose current symptoms may be related to a prior traumatic brain injury. The acronym captures the key domains: How the injury happened, ER/medical visit, Loss of consciousness or altered awareness, Problems in daily life, and Sickness/oxygen-deprivation events.

What counts as a 'positive' screen?

The classic HELPS-positive pattern is a possible event (H, E, or S = yes) plus a severity marker (L = yes, or medical treatment at the time) plus two or more ongoing symptoms that started after the event. A positive screen isn't a diagnosis, it's a signal that a focused TBI evaluation is worth doing.

I was never formally diagnosed with a concussion. Does this apply to me?

Yes. Many people with brain injuries were never formally evaluated, especially if the event was sports-related, a minor car accident, or something they didn't want to report (assault, abuse, blast exposure). The HELPS screener is specifically designed to catch these undiagnosed or downplayed injuries because they can still produce lasting hormonal and neurological effects.

How could an old concussion affect me now?

TBI damages the pituitary gland and its vascular supply. Even mild injury can cause chronic pituitary dysfunction that shows up years later as low testosterone, low thyroid, growth hormone deficiency, adrenal insufficiency, or disrupted sex hormones. The downstream symptoms (fatigue, brain fog, mood, weight changes, poor recovery) are often treated separately without anyone connecting them to the old injury.

What happens if my screen is positive?

The next step is a structured TBI evaluation. At Asymmetric Health we run the Millennium TBI Protocol developed by Dr. Mark Gordon: an extended hormone, inflammatory, and metabolic panel plus a focused consultation. Treatment is personalized based on what the labs show, often a combination of hormone optimization, peptide therapy, and targeted supplementation.

Is this a diagnostic test?

No. HELPS is a screening tool, not a diagnostic one. It helps identify who is likely to benefit from a full evaluation. Diagnosis and treatment require lab work, imaging when indicated, and a clinician.

Evidence & Sources

  1. Picard M, Scarisbrick D, Paluck R. HELPS Traumatic Brain Injury Screening Tool. International Center for the Disabled, 1991.
  2. Schneiderman AI, Braver ER, Kang HK. Am J Epidemiol. 2008;167(12):1446-52. Understanding sequelae of injury mechanisms and mild traumatic brain injury incurred during the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
  3. Tanriverdi F, Schneider HJ, Aimaretti G, et al. Endocr Rev. 2015;36(3):305-342. Pituitary dysfunction after traumatic brain injury: a clinical and pathophysiological approach.
  4. Gordon M. Traumatic Brain Injury: A Clinical Approach to Diagnosis and Treatment. Millennium Health, 2018.

Clinical Disclaimer: This questionnaire is a screening tool, not a diagnostic test. A positive screen indicates that a focused evaluation may be worthwhile; a negative screen does not rule out brain injury or related conditions. This tool is for educational and decision-support use and does not substitute for individualized clinical judgment.