March 10, 2023 – Eric Washington, former linebacker for the University of Kansas football team, got involved in the sport as a kid. “We bumped into each other when we played, and whoever was stronger or more reckless was supposed to have the best sporting career ahead of him,” he says.
He and his friends boxed and played football on each other’s lawns “with no gear or protection, just a lot of guys getting into a loud crash together”.
In high school, Washington became a successful football player. “You had to show people you weren’t scared, so you took bigger guys and ran into them,” he recalled. “I became one of those fearless people who were known as ‘that guy’ – a hard-hitting, relentless, reckless person.”
Washington’s first major brain injury occurred in ninth grade. “It was the first head-on collision that knocked me out and I missed a lot of ninth grade because of it,” he says. “I went from being a calm, reserved and gentle person to an aggressive person, having mood swings and blows.”
He developed memory and concentration issues, which worsened as he entered college football. “I remember a couple of times I got dizzy after a head injury and they took me out, but then I came back into the game,” he said.
Like Washington, many athletes suffer brain damage during their careerwith between 1.6 and 3 million sports and recreation related concussions take place every year, of which around 300,000 come from football.
Cognitive changes following concussions are also common. A new study published in the Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology sheds light on the problem.
For Washington, concussions and their effects continued through college. During a football scholarship in Kansas, “I thought everything was fine. Even after my concussions, I could still get back into the game and my body retained the “muscle memory” of how to play football and could follow instructions, even though my mind wasn’t quite there anymore.
In the past year, a neck and spinal cord injury ended his athletic career. “Everything got out of hand after that,” he says. “I found myself in terrible relationships, estranged from my family and even homeless for a while. I found myself in mental institutions and in dark places and with cognitive problems.
Does concussion affect long-term cognitive functioning?
In the new study, investigators looked at 353 former NFL players (average age, 54) who had been retired from their playing careers for nearly 3 decades.
Using a laptop or tablet, former players performed a battery of neuropsychological tests through an online platform called TestMyBrain. A range of cognitive functions were tested, including processing speed, visuospatial and working memory, short- and long-term memory, and vocabulary.
Players completed a 76-item questionnaire including 10 questions about signs and symptoms of concussion following a blow to the head while playing football: headache, nausea, dizziness, loss of consciousness, memory problems, disorientation , confusion, seizures, visual problems, or feeling unsteady on their feet. They were also asked if they had ever been diagnosed with a concussion.
Study lead author Laura Germine, PhD, director of the Brain and Cognitive Health Technology Laboratory at McLean Hospital in Boston, says we know the short-term health impact of concussions, but “the impact of concussions on cognitive functioning is not as clear. in the longer term among former professional footballers.
She says that “there has been a lot of mixed results among former gamers, so we wanted to answer that question using sensitive, state-of-the-art, objective measures of cognitive function in a larger sample of former players than what had been tested before this kind of study.
One of the reasons for the “mixed results” of past research is that some studies have focused on concussions and diagnosed cognitive problems. But many football players’ concussions don’t end up being diagnosed, so researchers decided to look specifically at the symptoms of concussions.
Accelerated cognitive aging
Former players who reported more concussion symptoms performed worse on cognitive tests. For example, the differences in visual memory between gamers with the highest and lowest concussion symptoms were equal to the differences in cognitive performance between a typical 35-year-old gamer and a typical 60-year-old gamer.
On the other hand, the lowest cognitive performance was not related to the number of concussions diagnosed, the number of years they played professional football or the age at which they first played. football.
The researchers conducted a follow-up study comparing the 353 players to 5,086 men who did not play football. They found that cognitive performance was generally worse in former gamers
“Although our results were inconclusive in this regard, we found the greatest differences in cognitive performance (compared to men of the same age) in older gamers,” says Germine.
Long-term cognitive problems
Washington continues to struggle with cognitive issues.
“My long-term memory sometimes seems intact, but after a while there are ‘holes’. Or I look at people and I can recognize a face, but I can’t remember who the people are.
He also has reading and memory difficulties. “My eyes have problems tracking and tracing. And if I read out loud, I’ll stutter and sputter and I won’t be able to remember what I just read. Sometimes I put the remote in the freezer, or I put my phone outside and I don’t know where it is.
Washington graduated from college and earned a bachelor’s degree in Applied Behavioral Science which led him to work with adults with developmental disabilities. However, schoolwork was hard and has become even harder lately.
“I would like to become a social worker to help others, but trying to complete my courses may not be an option,” he says.
He is currently being treated for cancer and the chemotherapy is also affecting his cognition. “I was getting A’s in my class work in one course, but I couldn’t remember anything in the finals, so I got an F and failed the course,” he says.
He hopes that as the cancer resolves, he can try his studies again. Although the cognitive challenges resulting from his concussions remain enormous, “not having a ‘chemo-brain’ will free up some cognitive abilities and hopefully I will do better in my classes and get my degree in social work.”
Get proper support
Germine says the study findings “underscore the need for parents, school systems and anyone who plays football to understand the importance of reporting all concussion symptoms, even if they don’t feel serious. at this moment”.
She notes that “appropriate measures to treat and reduce the impact of head injuries – even in the absence of diagnosed concussions – can be critical to maintaining long-term cognitive health.”
Additionally, “we need to do everything we can to prevent head injuries and concussions. Measures that reduce the likelihood of head impact are important in making football safer for brain development,” she says.
Washington urges people to take head injuries seriously and not just ‘come back to play’ and get evaluated for concussion; and if a concussion is diagnosed, receiving treatment for symptoms (such as emotional trauma, problems with attention or memory, or visual problems).
Additionally, both encourage people who have suffered a concussion to seek emotional support. Washington attends support groups offered by the American Brain Injury Association.
