Concussions in Football: Should we really believe the hype? #RESM560V
One of the leading issues in the media has been concussions in the NFL. “Concussion” comes out in December 2015, and has the public on edge:
“Concussion” is a sports movie based on Dr. Bennet Omalu, who linked the death of a professional football player in the NFL to chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). Dr. Omalu and many others in sports medicine believe that CTE is developed by repetitive head trauma.
With the developments from Dr. Omalu and a few colleagues, including researchers at Boston University, the idea of concussion has created a hysteria like fear in many athletes and parents of young athletes that if their child is concussed, it will leave long lasting repercussions on the athlete’s mental health. The public is heavily influenced by the media, and for the past few years, a major topic of discussion has been how the NFL has mismanaged the treatment of concussions.
The media has followed deaths of NFL players, many of which have been suicides. Many families of these players have made statements about the emotional well-being of these athletes, and how they were “never really the same” after their retirement from the NFL. The media has capitalized on the heavy emotion and highly dramatic circumstances of these players’ deaths. The families submit the brains of these deceased former NFL athletes for research and just like clockwork- CTE is found. CTE has been labeled as the cause for the many behavioral and emotional symptoms that these players experienced in the later parts of their lives, but is CTE truly the blame? Many researchers have proposed just that.
Karantzoulis and Randolph (2013) emphasize the fact that there is very limited evidence linking sports related concussion and increased risk for cognitive impairment later in life. The current information we know about the link between CTE and concussion has only developed from small case studies, which Dr. Omalu has worked on. CTE can only be identified post-mortem, which heavily limits the research that can be performed. The brains diagnosed with CTE were only donated to research because the families of the deceased NFL athletes believe that their loved ones showed abnormal symptoms. Hundreds of other deceased NFL athletes’ brains have never been evaluated because these athletes never showed the supposed symptoms that are associated with CTE. There has never been a randomized trial analyzing the emotional and cognitive symptoms of former NFL players and the prevalence of CTE in their brains. We know far too little about the effect of repetitive head trauma on the prevalence of CTE to make the bold statements that have been made about concussions in football.
The NFL definitely has not managed concussions in the best way. A positive note of this media coverage is that it has made the NFL take a hard look at their medical practices and what is best for the each player’s health and well being. However, the public should not confuse the repercussions of a poorly managed concussion with the risk of long lasting cognitive impairment due to concussion. Don’t believe the hype.
Published as a class assignment.
References:
Karantzoulis, S., & Randolph, C. (2013). Modern chronic traumatic encephalopathy in retired athletes: what is the evidence?. Neuropsychology Review, 23(4), 350–360. doi:10.1007/s11065–013–9243–4
