A recent study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine found that two significant factors that could lend themselves to combat sports athletes developing chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). Those two factors are age and the number of repeated head injuries.
The study, “Traumatic encephalopathy syndrome: application of new criteria to a cohort exposed to repetitive head impact,” looked at the characteristics of those who met the criteria for Traumatic Encephalopathy Syndrome (TES). The National Institute of Neurological Disease and Stroke (NINDS) established the TES criteria. A team of “20 expert clinician-scientists in neurology, neuropsychology, psychiatry, neurosurgery, and physical medicine and rehabilitation, from 11 academic institutions” considered 40 studies (229 cases) when developing the TES criteria.