NGT: NY Times article re: former college player & CTE

read that article. I wondered when somebody was going to post it. I don't remember him, but I'm sure there are thousands of others like him. There is no question that football damaged his brain IMO, and this has lead to his personal and professional downfall. It's incredibly sad.

that football played a role but I also see a great deal of other issues with him just from the article. The one question I would have is, did he ever do steroids? That would be one factor to look at. The use of other drugs, could have been happening before all of the "today usage" and could have played a role.

What is interesting is if football is a big at fault group (sport, activity whatever) then boxing, MMA, car racing, skiing etc can all be thrown in and studied too. Anything where the head is being violently thrown around, repeatedly would be causing the same type of symptoms and problems.

The difference is Football may have been aware of it and just ignored the possibilities.

He was afraid of losing his starting role, so he may not have reported problems/injuries.

That's an issue. I think it can be addressed through education. Make sure these young men know the potential consequences of not reporting issues. Also, make sure college medical staff are highly aware of brain-related issues.

One might even consider mandatory evaluations are pre-determined intervals (every 4 games, end of season; something like that).

Doing nothing (see: NCAA) is crazy.

What evidence is there that steroids cause symptoms that mimic those of CTE? I checked several medical sites. Steroids often lead to aggressive behavior, irritability and the like, but much less to depression, and never (that I can find) to massive short-term memory loss. There really isn't much overlap.

Btw, this short paragraph in the article is wrong, or poorly written:

Quote:

The problem is that it cannot be conclusive that Ryan has C.T.E. because not everyone with it exhibits symptoms of it, and because it can only be diagnosed after a person’s death. Hoffman’s family members fear they might learn the truth sooner than later.

Yes, it is impossible to fully diagnose (right now) prior to death, but the problem isn't that not everyone with CTE has symptoms. It's the other way around: that symptoms can have other causes.

The holy grail will be when there is a definitive test for CTE in living patients. Stuff on the 'Net suggests that we aren't that close, yet. Studies done so far are criticized as unreliable or having conflicts of interest, such as one at UCLA. A recent article from Mayo Clinic discusses diagnostic issues.
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