The degenerative brain disease can only be diagnosed after death. But hundreds of retired players reported symptoms linked to CTE, like depression, mood swings and suicidal thoughts.
The NFL logo is surrounded by helmets of the 32 teams in the league. A new survey released Monday found that a third of former NFL players believe they have CTE, a degenerative brain disease linked to concussions.
But the inability to diagnose CTE in living patients meant researchers were unable to determine when former players' symptoms were a result of CTE or other causes. If other causes were responsible, researchers warned, even the belief of having CTE — an incurable degenerative brain condition — could lead to symptoms like depression.
But the precise relationship between CTE and suicidal thoughts is still unclear. Research about suicide shows that a variety of factors can play a role in increasing someone's risk of suicidal thoughts, said Dr. Ross Zafonte, an author on the study and a professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard University.
Zafonte has treated a wide range of former football players, he said, from younger retirees who"aren't doing so well" to those in their 60s and 70s who are"cognitively intact, by all measures." Previous studies of CTE have been prone to selection bias, as researchers have largely examined brains donated by families who may have suspected their loved one had experienced cognitive decline. Selection bias could be a factor in the new study, too, the researchers acknowledged, as retirees with more health issues may have been more motivated to respond.
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