Frequent Brain Concussion Can Lead To Suicide

Frequent Brain Concussion Can Lead To Suicide.
When quondam National Football League celeb linebacker Junior Seau killed himself aftermost year, he had a catastrophic thought disorder probably brought on by repeated hits to the head, the US National Institutes of Health has concluded. The NIH scientists who planned Seau's perceptiveness precise that he had chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) near health. They told the Associated Press on Thursday that the cellular changes they aphorism were similar to those found in autopsies of populate "with exposure to repetitive head injuries".

The uproar - characterized by impulsivity, depression and erratic behavior - is only diagnosed after death. Seau, 43, who played pro football for 20 seasons before his retirement in 2009, snapshot himself in the strongbox carry on May 2012. His family donated his sense for research.

Some experts suspect - but can't sustain - that CTE led to Seau's suicide. "Chronic traumatizing encephalopathy is the thing we have typically seen in a lot of the athletes," said Dr Howard Derman, chief honcho at the Methodist Concussion Center in Houston. "Rather than intend 'this caused this,' I muse the observation is that there have been multiple pro football players now who have committed suicide: Dave Duerson, Andre Waters, John Grimsley - although Grimsley was just reported as a gun accident," Derman said.

Some hold that these players became depressed once they were out of the limelight or because of marital or pecuniary difficulties, but Derman thinks the substantiation goes beyond that."Yes, all that may be usual on - but it still remains that the seniority of these players who have committed suicide do have changes of long-standing traumatic encephalopathy. We feel that that is also playing a lines in their mental state".

But, Derman cautioned, "I can't about that chronic traumatic encephalopathy causes players to intern suicide". Chronic traumatic encephalopathy was first noticed in boxers who suffered blows to the principal over many years. In recent years, concerns about CTE have led stoned school and college programs to confine hits to the head, and the National Football League prohibits helmet-to-helmet hits.

About 4000 antediluvian NFL players filed a class-action lawsuit matrix year claiming the alliance failed to protect players from traumatic brain injuries or notify them about the dangers of concussions. The NFL has said that it never intentionally hid the dangers of concussion from players, and that it is now doing lot it can to preserve players against concussions. The league has given a $30 million probing grant to the National Institutes of Health for that purpose.

So "I was not surprised after wisdom a little about CTE that he had it," Seau's son, Tyler, 23, told the AP. "He did engage so many years at that level. I was more just feather of angry that I didn't do something more and have the awareness to improve him more, and now it is too late".

Seau's son said the strain was unaware of the side effects associated with head injuries. "We didn't be sure his behavior was from head trauma," he said. Seau's ex-wife, Gina Seau, told ABC News that although her ex-husband was never formally diagnosed with a concussion, he often complained of symptoms that are coupled to one. Those symptoms included nature swings, irrational behavior, forgetfulness, insomnia and depression.

Dr Russell Lonser, who led the weigh on Seau's brain, told the AP that the sagacity was independently evaluated in a "blind" fashion, sense it was one of three anonymous brains. "We had the occasion to get multiple experts twisted in a way that they wouldn't be able to directly identify his tissue even if they knew he was one of the individuals studied," Lonser said.

Last month, Boston University School of Medicine researchers reported in the newspaper Brain that multitude with CTE know four specific phases, beginning with retention disruption and thinking problems and ending with aggression. The Boston researchers said the circumstance had been diagnosed in 34 old professional players and nine former college football players results. Seau, who was divorced, played with New England, San Diego and Miami during his NFL career.