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Maurice Johnson

Mrs. Walters

Sports Medicine Period 2

1 March 2019

CTE

CTE stands for Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy. It is a degenerative brain disease that

could be found in athletes, military veterans, and others with a history of brain trauma. In CTE, a

protein called Tau forms clumps that slowly spread throughout the brain, killing brain cells. CTE

is caused by repetitive hits to the head sustained over a period of years. People are diagnosed

with CTE suffered hundreds or thousands of head impacts over the course of many years in their

career or life. People who are the most at risk at CTE are most often found in contact sport

athletes and military veterans, likely because these are some of the only roles in modern life that

involve purposeful, repetitive hits to the head. “CTE has been found in individuals whose

primary exposure to head impacts was through tackle football (200+ cases confirmed at the VA-

BU-CLF Brain Bank), the military (25+ cases), hockey (20+ cases), boxing (15+ cases, 50+

globally), rugby (5+ cases), soccer (5+ cases, 10+ globally), pro wrestling (5+ cases), and, in

fewer than three cases each, baseball, basketball, intimate partner violence, and individuals with

developmental disorders who engaged in head banging behaviors.” (CTE Resource). A person

has a more chance of developing CTE depending on their exposures to head impacts before age

12. People also with long careers in playing in a contact sport also have a higher chance of

developing CTE than others. There are very likely other risk factors that have yet to be

discovered, including possible genetic differences that make some people more prone to develop

CTE than others. CTE can only be diagnosed after death through brain tissue Analysis. Doctors
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have to slice through the brain tissue and use chemicals to make the Tau clamps visible and

search for any indifferent patterns specific to CTE which could take several months to complete.

Not many doctors know how to diagnose CTE. There are many symptoms for CTE. Early

symptoms of CTE usually appear in a patient's late 20s or 30s, and affect a patient's mood and

behavior which could cause impulse control problems, aggression, depression, and paranoia.

Some patients may also experience problems with thinking and memory, including memory loss,

confusion, impaired judgment, and eventually progressive dementia. People who have CTE can

also develop some Cognitive symptoms which generally appear in a patients 40s or 50s. “In

some cases, symptoms worsen with time (even if the patient suffers no additional head impacts).

In other cases, symptoms may be stable for years before worsening.” (CTE Resource). It is

difficult treating a disease that can’t be officially diagnosed until after death but many patients

worry about the possibility and address their symptoms. Mood changes, including depression,

irritability, and anxiety, may be treated with cognitive behavioral therapy which can help patients

develop strategies that manage the particular mood symptoms that are causing problems. There

are a variety of treatments for headaches including craniosacral therapy, massage, acupuncture,

or medications. If a patient is having memory problems they can do memory training exercises,

including consistent note-taking strategies, which can be helpful for continuing a patient's

activities of daily living, despite increasing difficulty with memory.