Concussions, CTE, and other traumatic brain injuries in football

[Bucklion]

This is also a MASSIVE issue for troops returning from the war zones.

Yep, I am in a field where a lot of research projects are tackling this issue. I hope we can help future generations of soldiers and athletes and accident victims with these problems.

 

[HorseshoeFetish]

RIP Junior.

 

[HorseshoeFetish]

It will be EXPLOITED because that's what the mediots in our country do to stories that draw viewers.

Just Google him now and every pic is from within the last 12 hours...He deserves recognition as a great player without a doubt. Sadly, as with many things in the media..this will eventually get very twisted IMO.

 

[GomerBucks]

Yep, I am in a field where a lot of research projects are tackling this issue. I hope we can help future generations of soldiers and athletes and accident victims with these problems.

I hope it gets figured out. Both groups (football players and veterans) could use it. Veterans, unfortunately, have to navigate the VA to attempt to get proper care...

But I digress.

 

[WyoBuck]

Veterans, unfortunately, have to navigate the VA to attempt to get proper care...
But I digress.

Ugh. The only words I have are crime, travesty, injustice.....sadness.

 

[LitlBuck]

Sleep disorder

Speaking from personal experience, sleep disorders are probably more common amongst the general population that people realize that some of the medications are fairly strong.

Family and friends of Junior Seau say he suffered from insomnia and took a drug for the problem, according to a report in USA Today that investigated the final few days of his life.


Seau, a perennial Pro Bowl linebacker who played 20 years in the NFL before retiring after the 2009 season, was found dead in his home on May 2 from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest.


In the midst of burgeoning concerns over the effects of concussions in the NFL, Seau?s sleep disorder could have been related to head blows. Kevin Guskiewicz, a researcher for the University of North Carolina, says sleep disorders are common among those who have suffered traumatic brain injury.


According to the USA Today report, at least four friends say he often took Ambien?a prescription drug that is commonly prescribed for sleep disorders. The FDA-approved prescribing information for Ambien, also known as zolpidem, warns that it may cause suicidal thoughts or actions in depressed users.

morehttp://www.cleveland.com/browns/index.ssf/2012/06/junior_seau_suffered_from_inso.html

 

[Dryden]

http://espn.go.com/college-football...nce-ivy-league-launch-joint-study-concussions

Leagues launch concussion study

Updated: June 19, 2012, 2:27 PM ET
By Adam Rittenberg | ESPN.com

The Big Ten Conference and the Ivy League are combining their brain power to study the effects of head injuries in sports.

The two conferences on Tuesday announced a major, co-sponsored research partnership to examine and address concussions and other head injuries among athletes.

Each conference recently launched its own concussion research initiative, but the collaboration will pool academic resources in an effort to better assess injuries from a physical and behavioral standpoint, and improve athlete education and welfare.

The pact will involve athletes from both leagues who volunteer to be evaluated. (The Big Ten and Ivy League have more than 17,500 combined athletes.) It will form a joint network of neurologists, neuropsychologists, neurosurgeons, sports medicine specialists and others who can evaluate athletes when they arrive on campus, during their playing careers and after they're finished playing.

"If we can pull it off, and there's a good chance we can do it, this would be the largest research undertaking," said Dr. Dennis Molfese, the director of the center for brain, biology and behavior at the University of Nebraska. "The big problem with concussion research in the past is you end up looking at people who suffer a concussion, but you never know what they were like before they experienced a concussion. So that's one thing, from a scientific standpoint, to have a level where you can do this.

Cont'd ...

 

[PlanetFrnd]

Dammit, I thought this was going to be the B1G-Ivy fencing challenge I've been calling for

 

[ORD_Buckeye]

Dammit, I thought this was going to be the B1G-Ivy fencing challenge I've been calling for

National championships notwithstanding, I'd think we'd have a hard time with Dartmouth.

 

[macspartan]

This study makes perfect sense. The Ivy League schools needed a conference that actually hits hard enough to produce a concussion. (Just kidding IVY Schools)

 

[PlanetFrnd]

This study makes perfect sense. The Ivy League schools needed a conference that actually hits hard enough to produce a concussion. (Just kidding IVY Schools)

I know you were just kidding, but remember this story:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/14/sports/14football.html?pagewanted=all

September 13, 2010

Suicide Reveals Signs of a Disease Seen in N.F.L.

By ALAN SCHWARZ

ALLENTOWN, Pa. - A brain autopsy of a University of Pennsylvania football player who killed himself in April has revealed the same trauma-induced disease found in more than 20 deceased National Football League players, raising questions of how young football players may be at risk for the disease.

Owen Thomas, a popular 6-foot-2, 240-pound junior lineman for Penn with no previous history of depression, hanged himself in his off-campus apartment after what friends and family have described as a sudden and uncharacteristic emotional collapse. Doctors at Boston University subsequently received permission from the family to examine Thomas?s brain tissue and discovered early stages of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a disease linked to depression and impulse control primarily among N.F.L. players, two of whom also committed suicide in the last 10 years.

Doctors in the Boston University group and outside it cautioned that Thomas?s suicide should not be attributed solely or even primarily to the damage in his brain, given the prevalence of suicide among college students in general. But they said that a 21-year-old's having developed the disease so early raised the possibility that it played a role in his death, and provided arresting new evidence that the brain damage found in N.F.L. veterans can afflict younger players...

The Ivies have been pretty focused on the matter since then... with a lot less to lose in terms of revenue (though perhaps not donations), the Ivy League probably can ask itsself very serious questions about whether or not football is worth it...

 

[Muck]

The Ivies have been pretty focused on the matter since then... with a lot less to lose in terms of revenue (though perhaps not donations), the Ivy League probably can ask itsself very serious questions about whether or not football is worth it...

If that does happen it will be interesting to see if they ask the same questions about women's soccer (which has the next highest rate of concussions suffered by participants).

 

[PlanetFrnd]

If that does happen it will be interesting to see if they ask the same questions about women's soccer (which has the next highest rate of concussions suffered by participants).

Ha, stirred pot duly noted, but to answer plainly: I doubt it. Anecdotally, you don't hear many stories about concussed female soccer players killing themselves. I'm no doctor, but it feels like there are concussions, and then there is repetitive brain trauma.

 

[Muck]

Ha, stirred pot duly noted, but to answer plainly: I doubt it.

No pot stirring needed. I am being dead serious. The other sport up in the same range is boys lacrosse. Outside of those three everything else seems to be a step down in number of concussions (and the latter two are a step down from FB).

Do we want to protect our kids regardless of the sport or are we just worried about the impact on a big money sport?

Anecdotally, you don't hear many stories about concussed female soccer players killing themselves.

Comparatively you don't hear many stories about female soccer players at all.

I'm no doctor, but it feels like there are concussions, and then there is repetitive brain trauma.

Concussions ARE brain trauma. A lot of the research coming out of the Iraq/Afghan wars seems to indicate that even relatively few TBIs can produce chronic symptoms.

 

[PlanetFrnd]

Concussions ARE brain trauma.

First of all, yes I know. And I know any one concussion can be bad if not detrimental to one's brain health. That being said, the very nature of playing, say, fullback on a soccer field and being Zach Boren and running head on into a 240lb linebacker... well, my point is that those are two different things.

No pot stirring needed.

Fair enough, no offense intended.

I am being dead serious. The other sport up in the same range is boys lacrosse. Outside of those three everything else seems to be a step down in number of concussions (and the latter two are a step down from FB).

Do we want to protect our kids regardless of the sport or are we just worried about the impact on the big money sport?

Comparatively you don't hear many stories about female soccer players at all.

Football does seem to be the worst, and football is, on a relative basis, much more expensive than a soccer team when there is no TV or ticket revenue to offset the expense (I know that Princeton isn't selling out any games), so in the event of a high profile issue like serious brain trauma in football is coupled with a specific case like the UPenn suicide, my point was that Ivy League president's will probably review the pros and cons of football at Ivy League schools. I'm not sure what difference it makes to Ivy League football whether or not the same attention is paid to Ivy League women's soccer.