Sports Injury Research Paper

High school and college athletes who have a history of concussion are 2 to 5.8 times more likely to experience another concussion compared to those who have no prior history of injury . Guskiewics et al. suggest that the increase of risk for another injury was higher during with the initial days after the first concussion. With repetitive exposure to concussions, the symptoms grow stronger each time. Although the symptoms disappear some time after the injury, symptoms can appear years later related to the damage done by the many concussions.

Consequently, chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) or “punch drunk” is a progressive degeneration of brain tissue caused by repetitive trauma to the brain. Symptoms include, cognitive dysfunctions,

memory loss, changes in behaviour and personality and speech difficulty. CTE is most commonly found in retired athletes from high contact sports. CTE has no definitive cure; in addition, it only diagnosed after death because of the deposits of tau protein are only examined through autopsy. Also, CTE cases tend to end in suicide before testing can occur according to Julian Bailes, neurosurgeon. Many efforts are being made to find a diagnostic tool that can examine at risk individuals who are still living. One promising study conducted by Small et al. examined fourteen at risk retired male professional football players who displayed symptoms of CTE. The researchers injected a compound known as FDDNP that attached itself to the tau protein using a PET . Other research concentrates on which proteins (possibly TDP-43 and tau) contribute to the development of CTE through cultured animal neurons.
Furthermore, at this point in the research CTE has no definitive cure or specific treatments specifically. Prevention measures seem to be the main focus. Which include reducing the amount of exposure to high contact sports to avoid concussion. For that reason I would like to gear my pamphlet towards warning parents who have children in a high contact sport of the possible long term effects. A hospital or doctors office is where my pamphlet could be found. I plan to concentrate on how it could affect their child. The neurological level is where I would concentration and how it affects the individual.