Texas Public Radio: Diagnosing CTE before death
Posted on: Wednesday, December 4th, 2024
Chronic traumatic encephalopathy is a rare neurodegenerative disease that develops in people who have many years of hits to the head. We often hear about CTE in former football players, but it can also occur in rodeo riders, soldiers, or someone who has experienced years of intimate partner violence. According to Jeremy Tanner, MD, assistant professor of neurology at the Glenn Biggs Institute for Alzheimer’s and Neurodegenerative Diseases, it’s not about how hard you’re hit but how often and for how many years.
People with CTE can develop problems with cognition, including memory loss and challenges to executive function. More troubling can be what’s called neurobehavioral dysregulation.
“There can be difficulties with impulse control,” Dr. Tanner said. “Having a short fuse, irritability, anger, explosive outbursts.”
The neurobehavioral dysregulation in CTE has been linked with lethal violence that has led to death. In these cases, the person was diagnosed after their death because it is not currently possible to diagnose CTE during life definitively.
Dr. Tanner hopes to change that and will lead the San Antonio arm of a multi-year study involving former college and professional football players.
Listen to Texas Public Radio’s Science & Medicine Episode 57: Diagnosing CTE before death