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 Researchers compared memory tests and brain scans for former NFL
players and a control group of people who didn't play college or pro
football. After concussions that resulted in lost consciousness, the
football players were more likely to have mild cognitive impairment
and brain atrophy years later.
"Our results do suggest that players with a history of concussion
with a loss of consciousness may be at greater risk for cognitive
problems later in life," senior study author Munro Cullum, chief of
neuropsychology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical
Center in Dallas, said by email. "We are at the early stages of
understanding who is actually at risk at the individual level."
Cullum and colleagues recruited 28 retired NFL players living in
Texas: eight who were diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment and
20 who didn't appear to have any memory problems. They ranged in age
from 36 to 79, and were an average of about 58 years old.
All but three former athletes experienced at least one concussion,
and they typically had more than three.
Researchers compared these men to 27 people who didn't play football
but were similar in age, education, and mental capacity to the
retired athletes, including six with cognitive impairment. These men
were 41 to 77 years old, and about 59 on average.
To assess memory and cognitive function, researchers gave
participants a common verbal test measuring how well they can recall
lists of words and understand how the words are related. The tester
might list fruits on a grocery list, for example, and then see if
the participant could repeat all of the items and also understand
that they are part of the same food group.
Athletes who had a concussion history as well as mild cognitive
impairment got the lowest scores on this memory test.
In addition, brain scans in the study participants with mild
cognitive impairment showed that the retired athletes in this
subgroup had significantly smaller volume in the left hippocampus, a
region of the brain involved in memory.
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One drawback of the study is its reliance on players to report their
own concussion history, the researchers acknowledge in JAMA
Neurology.
"Retrospective recall of concussions by athletes is notoriously
inaccurate," Dr. John Leddy, medical director of the University at
Buffalo Concussion Management Clinic, said by email.
Another shortcoming is the study's use of an outdated system for
rating concussions based on whether athletes lost consciousness, a
common practice before the late 1990s that has since given way to a
focus on the duration and severity of post-concussion symptoms, said
Leddy, who wasn't involved in the study.
"Nobody finds it useful to grade concussions any longer because the
initial treatment is the same for all concussions: remove
immediately from at-risk activity," Leddy said.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/1digxKZ JAMA Neurology, online May 18, 2015.
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