Scientists studying the donated brains of deceased former football players found strong evidence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disorder, caused by repeated head trauma, linking long-term neurological problems with playing football, according to an article published Tuesday in a medical journal.
Researchers from Boston University and the VA Boston Healthcare system examined the donated brains of 202 football players, 111 of them from men who played in the National Football League. They found strong evidence of CTE, which is caused by repeated head trauma and is associated with a number of mood and behavioral disorders, including dementia.
CTE can only be diagnosed postmortem.
However, the researchers highlighted the potential bias of their study, that athletes and their families were motivated to donate the players’ brain to research because of public awareness that repeated head trauma leads to brain disorders.
The authors further warned that the high frequency of CTE in this study should not be confused with a high prevalence of CTE in football players — instead how CTE influences other neurological disorders.
The researchers conducted post-mortem laboratory examinations and interviews with family members to collect detailed patient histories including head trauma, athletic participation and military service. The findings were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Among the sample size, CTE was diagnosed in 177 subjects who all had played football for at least 15 years. This group included three high school players, 48 college players, nine semi-professional football papers, seven Canadian Football League players and 110 NFL players.
The researchers further evaluated that the subjects diagnosed with CTE — from mild to severe — had also displayed behavioral and mood disorders.
Twenty-seven patients were determined to have mild CTE and further surveys and research found this group had high percentages of behavioral or mood disorder (96 percent), cognitive symptoms — such as confusion, poor motor coordination, memory loss and more — (85 percent), and 33 percent had signs of dementia.
Among 84 subjects with severe cases of CTE, 89 percent had behavioral or mood symptoms or both, 95 percent had cognitive symptoms and 85 percent had signs of dementia, the authors wrote.
“In a convenience sample of deceased football players who donated their brains for research, a high proportion had neuropathological evidence of CTE, suggesting that CTE may be related to prior participation in football,” the authors said in their conclusion.
The NFL responded to the results of the study on Tuesday, issuing a statement that the work done by the researchers adds value to the understanding of CTE and the the NFL is “committed” to improving the health of their current and former athletes.
“The medical and scientific communities will benefit from this publication and the NFL will continue to work with a wide range of experts to improve the health of current and former NFL athletes,” the statement read. “As noted by the authors, there are still many unanswered questions relating to the cause, incidence and prevalence of long-term effects of head trauma such as CTE. The NFL is committed to supporting scientific research into CTE and advancing progress in the prevention and treatment of head injuries.”
The NFL further added in 2016 it had pledged $100 million for “independent medical research and engineering advancements in neuroscience related topics” in addition to already providing $100 million for earlier medical and neuroscience research.
• Laura Kelly can be reached at lkelly@washingtontimes.com.
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