NBC NEWS – Roughly one-third of former professional football players surveyed believe they have chronic traumatic encephalopathy, according to a recent study.
The brain disease, better known as CTE, is linked to repeated hits to the head. Evidence of it has been found in the brains of many former football players after death.
The research, published Monday in the journal JAMA Neurology, is distinct from many other studies on CTE in that it is based on survey data from former players who are still alive, even though CTE can only be officially diagnosed via an examination of the brain postmortem.
“Most of the studies that have been done on CTE are much smaller studies on deceased players,” said Rachel Grashow, the lead author of the new study and director of epidemiological research initiatives at Harvard University’s Football Players Health Study.
“So, we have this incredibly rich cohort. It is diverse by geography, by race, by amount of playing time. We are studying, really, how they lived their lives, not postmortem.”
The Football Players Health Study — the cohort Grashow is referring to — is funded in part by the National Football League Players Association, as is some of Grashow’s work.
The project surveyed around 4,000 men who played in the American Football League and National Football League between 1960 and 2000 (the two merged in 1970). Their responses were collected from 2017 to 2020.
The new study focuses on a subgroup of just under 2,000 respondents who provided additional data.
Of those, 34% said they believed they had CTE, based on symptoms they had experienced, including depression, cognitive difficulties and long-term effects of previous head injuries.
The NFL did not respond to a request for comment.
CTE is characterized by the death of nerve cells in the brain, which can lead to cognitive impairment, difficulty regulating behavior, mood changes and depression …
