Researchers are calling recent findings the tip of the iceberg.
MedPage Today reports on a paper from Brain, showing that players who suffered a single concussion playing college-level sports had “greater declines in attention and memory and a slowing of some movements more than 30 years later compared with those who never had a concussion.”
The National Football League is currently conducting its own study, looking at the long-term effects of concussions in professional football players. The preliminary findings confirm the increased risk of long-term neurological damage from concussions.
The next step, says the author, is whether there is an increased risk of Alzheimer’s dementia after suffering a concussion earlier in life.
I wouldn’t bet against it.
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- Football is linked to dementia, and why it should be banned from high schools
- A patient hospitalized for migraines suffers a concussion when the TV falls on her head
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I think you should bet against it. The pathophysiology of concussion and that of Alzheimers is distinctly different. There would need to be a significant effort directed at autopsy findings correlated with degree of neurologic dysfunction seperated by a number of groups including those with history of concussive injury and no dementia, those with concussive injury and dementia again patients with dementia without history of concussion… and so on.
I give it another 20 years before we will be able to scientifically sort that issue out.
JFS
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