HealthDay (9/23, Thompson ) reports, “One in three former NFL players believe they have football-relatedbrain damage that’s doing untold harm to their lives, a new study finds.” Regrettably, their concerns may be adversely affecting “their mental health on top of whatever risks they face from head injuries sustained during their careers, researchers report.” HealthDay adds that “about one-third of nearly 2,000 retired NFL players believe they have chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain condition linked to repeated head trauma, researchers reported.” The research was published in JAMA Neurology.
Psychiatric News (9/23) reports that “chronic traumatic encephalopathy neuropathological changes (CTE-NC) can only be determined at autopsy, so there is no way to tell whether living former football players who perceive themselves as having CTE actually have biological changes indicative of the condition.” The researchers said, “Football players, lay people, clinicians, and popular media outlets often refer to CTE as a singular entity occurring in living and deceased individuals to represent CTE-NC and/or TES [traumatic encephalopathy syndrome – a proposed clinical diagnosis characterized by cognitive impairment and problems controlling behavior] interchangeably.” They added, “CTE is often presented as manifesting in living people as cognitive impairment, mood disorders, and suicidality, even though depression and suicidality are not part of the TES core clinical features.”
Related Links:
— “Many Former NFL Players Believe They Have CTE, Raising Suicide Risk,”Dennis Thompson, HealthDay, September 23, 2024