Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy Case Study

INTRO/BACKGROUND

Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, a neurodegenerative condition in which an individual may experience executive dysfunction, impaired memory, depression, apathy, poor impulse control, suicidal tendencies, and ultimately dementia, has come to attention in recent years (Baugh et al. 2012). Currently the disease is not diagnosable until the individual has passed away and symptoms often mimic those of other neurodegenerative conditions. With that being said, CTE is a problem that has no way of being detected, let alone a cure. As CTE is being more extensively researched, it has been found that the cause is much broader than documented concussions. The origins of CTE began with the boxing world and a term called “punch drunk” which referred to the symptoms observed in boxers, hypothesized to be a result of the repeated blows sustained throughout a career.

As the condition is only diagnosable post-mortem, it is unknown how the repeated head injuries that much of our youth experience are effecting their development. In being unable to diagnose CTE in the living, there is no way to know how these repeated traumas are affecting the development of a growing brain. We have only been able to see the effects of CTE on those who have passed, and there is no way to determine at what point the condition began to take hold. This bigger, faster, and stronger generation may be set up for failure as the prevalence of concussions is on the rise, with no way to detect or prevent future