A study reveals a link that was damning between soccer practice and encephalopathy

Photo: Chris O’meara Associated Press
The study led by Dr. Ann McKee does not confirm that this condition is common among all football players.

A very high proportion of football players of the NFL, the canadian League, as well as networks of university and secondary school is the subject of an in-depth study suffer from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (cte).

This is demonstrated by the results overwhelming a study on the link between football practice and ETC, published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The study, led by Dr. Ann McKee, does not confirm that this condition is common among all football players, but rather that it is present in large numbers in the brains collected by the Boston University and the Sports Legacy Institute, which today has become the Misappropriation Legacy Institute.

“There are still many unanswered questions, stressed Dr. Ann McKee, a neuroscientist from Boston University, who led the research. To what extent this condition is common in the general population ? Among the football players ? How many years of football practice constitute a risk ? What is the genetic risk ? Some players do not show any symptoms even if they have played a lot of years, ” she says.

For the moment it is impossible to determine if the habits of life — consumption of drugs, alcohol or steroids — have been able to play a role, ” added McKee.

Of adverse symptoms

The chronic traumatic encephalopathy is a disease identified by Dr. Bennet Omalu, who first established a correlation between shocks to the cranium repetitive faced by football players and degeneration premature cognitive faculties. People with ETC suffer from memory loss, confusion, impulsive behaviour and, often, depression.

The study revealed that, on the 202 brains analyzed, 177 (87%), showed signs of ETC : 110 of 111 brains from NFL players, 7 of the 8 CFL players, 48 of the 53 players academics, 9 of the 14 players semi-professionals, as well as 3 of the 14 players at the high school level.

Dr. Munro Cullum, a neuropsychologist at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, stated, however, that the study is based on a limited sample of men who were perhaps not even representative of football players. He indicated that disorders other than the ETC might explain their most common symptoms prior to their deaths, such as depression, impulsivity and behavioral changes. He was not involved in this study.

McKee indicated that this study could, however, lead to answers, or at least help to understand how to detect this condition so that those affected are still alive ” and that we can still do something.” There is currently no treatment.

For the moment, the ETC may not be detected until after death. Several researchers are working, however, the development of a detection test which can do before. Many scientists believe that repeated blows to the head are responsible for its development and that boxers and footballers, as well as the veterans of the army, are more at risk.

The NFL issued a statement indicating to what extent these studies are important for the advancement of science, in particular in relation to head injuries.

After years of denying it, the league has finally admitted that there was a link between blows to the head and diseases of the brain and has agreed to pay US $1 billion in compensation to former players who had accused the league of concealing the risks associated with the practice of football.

The CFL is itself the object of a collective action of $ 200 million to the topic of concussions and head injuries. The ex-commissioner Jeffrey Orridge had been severely criticized last fall when it had denied the existence of a link between football practice and the development of the ETC. He resigned in June and the new commissioner, Randy Ambrosie, has not yet ruled on the issue.

The brains studied by the team of Dr. McKee came from ex-players who died as early as at the age of 23. The donor the oldest died at the age of 89 years. The average age at death of all the people who participated in the study was 66 years. Among the 177 cases detected ETC, 18 have committed suicide.