United States: The vicious brain disease called chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is associated with regular and repeated hits to the head and can only be detected after death through a brain autopsy.
Therefore, as the experts notice, the very-much-alive former professional football players show symptoms of the disease.
About the recent research
According to recent research conducted on 4,000 men who had played in the American Football League and National Football League between 1960 and 2000. The research furthermore narrowed down the study to 1980 participating players, for whom they had the most data, as NBC News reported.
Among this group, 681 of the respondents, or in other words, 34 percent of them, believed to have CTE based on their symptoms.
More about the findings
The experts suggest that it could take years for symptoms to develop and become visible; after head trauma, CTE is generally associated with cognitive impairment, difficulty in behavior regulation, mood swings, and depression.
There are numerous symptoms, such as depression and signs of cognitive impairment, which are commonly seen among the CTE group, as per the study findings published in JAMA Neurology on Monday.
Moreover, almost 25 percent of respondents in the group also reported suicidal thoughts, as compared to just 5 percent of those without visible CTE,
As the researchers said, After adjusting for established suicidality predictors (e.g., depression), men with perceived CTE remained twice as likely to report suicidality,” newser.com reported.
What more are the experts stating?
Moreover, Rachel Grashow, a study author and a neuroscientist at Harvard University, said, “Many conditions common to former NFL players, such as sleep apnea, low testosterone, high blood pressure, and chronic pain, can cause problems with thinking, memory, and concentration.”
Moreover, she also noted that simply believing that one has CTE could also lead to symptoms of depression. Therefore, it is “imperative” to shift discussions of CTE to managing conditions that are treatable.
Grashow added that this “may reduce the chances that players will prematurely attribute symptoms to CTE, which may lead to hopelessness and thoughts of self-harm.”