The brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), linked to repeated hits to the head, can only be diagnosed after death via a brain autopsy. But many very-much-alive former professional football players believe they have it. Researchers surveyed 4,000 men who played in the American Football League and National Football League between 1960 and 2000, then narrowed their focus on 1,980 participants for whom they had the most data, NBC News reports. Of this group, 681 respondents, or 34%, said they believe they have CTE based on symptoms experienced.
Though it can take years for symptoms to appear following head trauma, CTE is linked to cognitive impairment, difficulty regulating behavior, mood changes, and depression. Several of these symptoms (including including depression and signs of cognitive impairment) were more common among the perceived CTE group, according to the study published Monday in JAMA Neurology. And 25% of respondents in this group reported suicidality, compared with just 5% of those without perceived CTE. "After adjusting for established suicidality predictors (eg, depression), men with perceived CTE remained twice as likely to report suicidality," the researchers wrote.
This doesn't mean all of those who believe they have CTE actually do. "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," study author Rachel Grashow, a neuroscientist at Harvard University, tells NPR. And simply believing one has CTE could lead to symptoms like depression, she notes. That's why it's "imperative" to shift discussions of CTE to managing conditions that are treatable, Grashow says. This "may reduce the chances that players will prematurely attribute symptoms to CTE which may lead to hopelessness and thoughts of self-harm." (More CTE stories.)
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