“Tunderstand the seriousness of concussions” – Peyton Manning. “Maybe I’m stupid or whatever, But to me if I got a concussion, I could see straight and carry a football than I’m not telling anybody” – Ricky Williams. Most athletes who have played in professional sports normally have had a concussion. Some athletes have had more than just one concussion because they play the sport that they love and don’t want to let an injury slow down there career when they can have the chance to become a very well known athlete.
Athletes normally don’t wanna tell nyone about a concussion because they have to sit out and can’t play. There are many effects of a concussion but the worst part of it can be the possibility of getting CTE. The leading cause of TBI is car crashes but the second leading cause is sports which is catching up to the amount from car crashes. TBI is a traumatic brain injury. Studies have shown that girls are more likely to suffer a concussion compared to boys. College athletes are at a higher likeliness of suffering a concussion but high school athletes suffer more concussions than college athletes hould.
Concussions occur when someone has a bad hit to the head or multiple hits to the head in a short window of time. Concussions are the swelling of the brain. A concussion is mild TBI. this is according to “Sport Psychology and concussions: New impacts to explore. ” Bjsm. bmj. com A way to get through concussions are often interventions that are recommended. The most common one that is recommended is a social group. This is most commonly recommended because it helps the athlete feel like they still have people there for them and not being alone or isolated.
Some other ways of intervention are imagery, relaxation, modeling, goal setting, positive self talk, pain management, simulation training, education, stress management, and cognitive reconstruction. But these aren’t as common as a support group is. After multiple concussions most athletes will develop Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE). The concept of CTE was introduced in 1928. The precise incidence of CTE after repetitive head injury is unknown, although really high. 17% of athletes will develop CTE. Because of this more attention has been focused on Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI).
Most concussions only last a few days to a week. It isn’t normal for a concussion to last longer than that. The athletes where most of the cases of CTE happen were in football, boxing, wrestling, rugby, hockey, lacrosse, soccer, and skiing. Football players and boxer normally experience thousands of subconcussive hits throughout a season. The most cases of CTE is in boxers. But even military veterans are at risk of developing CTE. The side effects that will happen to athletes with CTE can make them have a rough retirement from their respected sports. CTE can lead to Alzheimer disease (AD),
PRogressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), Postencephalitic parkinsonism, Amyotrphic lateral sclerosis/ Parkinson Dementia complex of Guam CAKS/PDCL. The volunteer retired athletes to check the differences between the cases of CTE in football athletes and boxers. 4 football players with verified CTE all died suddenly at age at the age difference between them was 36 – 50 years. The mean was 44 for all of the football players. 5 boxers with verified CTE had a age difference of 23 – 91. The mean age is 60 years. The football players died before all of the boxers did.
The football players all played different positions than each other their possitions were 3 offensive linemen, 1 defensive lineman, and 1 linebacker. The symptoms of CTE in the test subkects were mood disorder (mainly depression), Memory loss, paranoia, and poor insight or judgement (80%), outbursts of anger or aggression, irritability and apathy confusion (60%), reduced concentration, and agitation. All of the test subjects all suffered multiple concussions of the 51 people that were tested 46 of them were positively diagnosed with CTE. That was 90% of the athletes tested. of the tested athletes were boxers which was 85% of the athletes who tested positive, 5 were football players and they made up 11%, 1 professional wrestler which was 2%, 1 soccer player which was 2%. These were all tested against each other. 13 were symptoms at the time of their retirement from their sport. 12 of the were symptomatic within 4 years from when they stopped playing.
The common symptoms include memory loss, irritability, outbursts of aggressive or violent behavior, confusion, speech abnormalities, cognitive decline, gait abnormalities, unsteadiness, headaches, slurred speech, and parkinsonism. 45 year old right handed white male died in an accidental gunshot wound to the chest while cleaning a gun. He was a retired professional football player. He played all 4 years in college high school. He played 3 years in college going to the draft after his junior year. He also played 10 years in the NFL which is 17 years of having multiple concussions. He was never diagnosed for post concussive syndrome and never sought medical attention for residual cognitive or behavioral difficulties. He was never carried off the field or hospitalized during his career.
When he was at the age f 40 his family reported he was acting different. His symptoms were short term memory loss, attention, concentration, organization, planning, problem solving, judgement and the ability not being able to complete more than one task at a time. Toward the end of his life he tended to get angry and verbally aggressive over insignificent issues and was more emotionally labile. Than he started suffer frome substance abuse and symptoms of depression. He never took any illegal drugs when tested. Then the tests of dementia and psychiatric illnesses came back negative.
When someone passes away and has CTE heir brain will have yellow color to it because of all of the damage that it has taken, it will also have some deformities in it as well. It will also decrease in size. Right now it is hard to diagnose CTE because there aren’t that many tests. Most athletes don’t wanna be tested either. Because once they are tested and test positive there whole life will change with their families and their work, It is just a lot for them to have to go through. The two quotes at the beginning show the difference between two athletes who have played in the NFL. They have their own outlook on concussions.
One sees it as a big deal and needs to make sure their health comes before the game and the other would rather not tell anyone because they don’t want it to get in the way of them making a career when they worked so hard to get there. This shows that everyone has their own outlook on the problem of Concussions and CTE. I personally think that concussions and CTE is a growing issue because to many athletes are playing at a high level and getting multiple concussions which can lead to many mental issues which will continue to grow unless there are strict policies on concussion protocols.