Scientists Hunt for a Test to Diagnose Chronic Brain Injury in Living People – NPR
CTE has been part of the national lexicon in the U.S. since the 2015 movie Concussion dramatized the discovery of this degenerative brain disease among football players.
Chronic traumatic encephalopathy is found among people who’ve had head injuries. Though not everyone with head trauma develops CTE, the group that’s come to be most associated with it is football players, whose brains can be routinely jarred by hard hits. The disease has been linked to depression, dementia and even suicide among those who play the game.
But the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease published a study Tuesday that helps broaden the understanding of who is potentially affected by CTE to include military personnel. And, perhaps more significantly, the study represents a step forward in developing a test for the disease in the living.
