Some of what we go through with our child is due to something more akin to traumatic stress disorder, so while the following 2 articles have nothing in common with my son’s condition, I found them an intriguing read and it underscored to me that, when it comes to most things neurological, we really don’t know what we don’t know.
Please use the links to read the articles in their entirety.
Why Did David Duerson Kill Himself? By Bob Drury, Contributing Editor
I originally read this article in Men’s Health News Today. However, that article has been removed from the internet, but the snippet of that article that got interested me was the following:
“… Since that interview with Carson, I’ve written thousands of words for MH—and even Women’s Health—about soldiers coming home from our multiple wars with traumatic brain injury, or TBI. One advocacy group, the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, estimates that as many as one quarter of the 2 million American servicemen and women who have deployed overseas have returned with some form of the injury in its various guises, including post-traumatic stress disorder. I am even working on a story about the pilot program introduced by the U.S. Army designed to rehabilitate TBI sufferers with the aid of psychological service dogs. …” explaining that it isn’t just football players and vast numbers of American service members also struggle with this same neurological disruption.
Gluckstein Lawyers wrote in 2011 – Dave Duerson of the Chicago Bears, NY Giants, and Phoenix Cardinals suffered from an advanced form of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). He committed suicide on February 17, 2011, at the age of 50. Football players and the media are calling him “Football’s first martyr”.
Before he took his life, he took steps to help others: he left a note and text messages and asked his survivors to donate his brain to research, specifically to the Boston University Center studying long-term brain damage and CTE.
According to the Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy, CTE is “a progressive, degenerative disease of the brain found primarily in athletes with a history of repetitive brain trauma (including symptomatic and asymptomatic sub-concussive hits to the head). CTE has been know to affect boxers (e.g the Punch-Drunk effect). Repetitive trauma triggers progressive degeneration of the brain tissue, specifically the build-up of an abnormal protein called tau. These changes in the brain can begin months, years, or even decades after the last brain trauma or end of active athletic involvement.”
This is Your Brain on Multiple Concussions.
You’ve probably never heard of post-concussion syndrome. Neither had Harry Carson, Pat LaFontaine, nor dozens of other former pro athletes. Then the symptoms started By Bob Drury, Posted Date: June 20, 2005
In the beginning, there were dings. As in, “Back when I was coming up, it was like the Dark Ages,” says NHL Hall of Fame center Pat LaFontaine. “You get a ding, you clear the cobwebs, and you skate right back out there.”
As in, “I figure I suffered between 15 and 20 concussions during my career,” says retired NFL middle linebacker Harry Carson, “half of them full-blown, the other half dings.”
Further reading: I Just Hit My Head Really Hard. What Do I Do? Doctors explain what you should do when faced with head trauma. By Vanessa Etienne, Cori Ritchey, C.S.C.S., Colleen de Bellefonds. Published: Feb 28, 2023 10:54 AM EST
“Around 2.5 million Americans head to the hospital every year with some kind of head injury, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Most common causes of head injuries include falls and car accidents. Men, in fact, are most at risk: they’re around four times more likely to injure their heads than women are, according to Harvard Medical School.”
Long and short, take head injuries seriously.
“Watch For The Symptoms: Concussion symptoms aren’t always totally obvious, and they often don’t last long. “Sometimes early after a concussion people stumble and may not be thinking clearly or may not remember the last play. It usually resolves very quickly but deserves complete removal from the chance of having another injury,” Benzel says.
Long-term implications are still not fully clear, but definitely something to be aware of.