Not all adverse health outcomes in former contact sports athletes are concussion related

There is continued interest in the association between exposure to traumatic brain injury (TBI) during contact sports participation and lifelong adverse health effects, including neurodegenerative disease, mental health disorders and suicide.1 In part, this is driven by reporting of a neurodegenerative pathology linked to TBI, chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), in autopsy series of former athletes from multiple contact sports.1 However, while the number of cases with confirmed CTE neuropathological change grows, understanding of late clinical outcomes in ‘at risk’ populations remains challenged by acknowledged methodological limitations in many studies to date.1 2 In the paper by Brett et al 3, the authors address some of these limitations in providing …