In late October 2022, the NIH National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) updated their website and made the following statement: “Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a delayed neurodegenerative disorder that was initially identified in postmortem brains and, research-to-date suggests, is caused in part by repeated traumatic brain injuries” (italics added).
SNS recognizes that there remains much about CTE that is not yet fully understood and that the development of this condition is likely related to multiple factors (including repeated head trauma). SNS regularly reviews the current state of the scientific literature to offer sound information on this and other topics pertinent to the health and safety of athletes.
Interested readers can find more information in the July 2022 update to the SNS CTE Q&A Fact Sheet (available here).