Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a neurodegenerative condition, has been commonly diagnosed in professional athletes in sports like football, soccer, and hockey. However, a groundbreaking study by Boston University’s CTE Center reveals that amateur athletes—particularly those participating in youth, high school, and college sports—are also affected by CTE. This research, published in the JAMA Neurology journal, represents the largest study to date on CTE in young athletes, examining 152 brains of athletes under 30 that were donated to the UNITE Brain Bank between 2008 and 2022. The study found that 41% of these brains exhibited confirmed evidence of CTE through autopsies.
Notably, the ages of the brain donors ranged from 13 to 29, with the youngest CTE patient identified as a 17-year-old high school football player. Among the donors, the majority had engaged in football (60%), while others played soccer (15%), ice hockey (10%), rugby, and wrestling. Out of the 152 donors, eleven were female, and one, a 28-year-old college soccer player, received a CTE diagnosis. It is worth mentioning that 87 cases out of the sample group died by suicide, though this study does not definitively link suicide to CTE among these patients, as suicide is a leading cause of death among young people in general.
Dr. Ann McKee, the lead author of the study, considers the findings “remarkable,” highlighting that less than 1% of the general population has CTE. She emphasizes that this study demonstrates the early onset of CTE pathology. However, Dr. Steven Broglio, head of the University of Michigan Concussion Center, offers some reassurance to parents concerned about their children participating in contact sports. He states that there is currently no evidence suggesting long-term problems for children engaged in youth or high school football. Dr. Broglio underscores the benefits of team sports but urges caution, likening the risks of CTE to smoking, where the more one engages in contact sports, the higher the risk becomes.
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