When talking about concussions in sports, the sport that probably comes to mind first is football. There’s good reason for this, as statistics show that concussions are common among football players of all ages.
In professional sports, concussions are also a hot topic for the National Football League (NFL). While working at the Allegheny County Coroner’s Office in Pittsburgh in the 2000s, Bennet Omalu, MD, studied the brain of a deceased former NFL player and found evidence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a progressive degenerative brain disease found in people with a history of repetitive head trauma. The disease, which is associated with memory lossdepression and dementia had never been observed in football players before.
It’s important to note, however, that players with a history of depression, mood swings, or substance abuse were likely more likely to donate their brains, leading to selection bias.
The later study also showed that 48 out of 53 people who played football in college and 3 out of 14 who played football in high school had CTE.
But the relationship between concussions and CTEs is complex. It is widely accepted that it is the minor, repeated blows to the head that regularly occur in football that pose the greatest risk to players, as opposed to simple violent collisions which can result in concussions.
