The Cause And Effect Of Traumatic Brain Injury In Football Players

Abstract

Traumatic Brain Injury is a condition that is brought on by the brain suddenly colliding with the skull. This type of injury can seriously impact a person’s basic cognitive functions. For example, short term memory loss and migraine headaches. Even worse could possibly be sever mental disorders including, but not limited to, paranoid schizophrenia. Several professional football players and wrestlers have exhibited these conditions which led to poor quality of life. Dave Duerson, once an elite NFL player, committed suicide while Chris Benoit, once considered one of the greatest performers in pro wrestling, murdered his wife and son and then committed suicide. There seems to be a correlation between physical contact, concussions, and traumatic brain injuries.

Introduction

Traumatic Brain injury, commonly abbreviated as TBI, is a disruption in the normal functioning of the brain which can be caused by a number of factors involving a violent, sudden jolt or blow on the head causing massive damage to the brain. The common causes of TBI include gunshots, accidents, injuries from sports and physical assault of the cranial system. According to CDC, the severity of TBI depends on the exact location of the brain that is affected, the severity and the extent of the damage caused. The focus of this experiment will be on a well known sport and performance art. Specifically professional (American) football and professional wrestling.. It is estimated that direct and indirect expenses related to the treatment and control of TBI cost approximately $76 billion per year.

Depending the severity and the impact, TBI can have a long-lasting impact on the life of its victims ranging from impaired memory retention to sever mental health disorders and in the most extreme cases, death. Method From February 4-6, 2019, the experiment began by watching videos ranging in time from approximately 5-15 minutes at 9:00am. Two sports were used, professional (American) football and professional wrestling. Two of the videos searched included what were later diagnosed as concussions. A 9 second video of what turned out to be Brett Favre’s final play of his career, shows contact with his helmet on the ground during a game with cold temperatures. In a 9 minute 55 second video, a pro wrestling match with Mick Foley and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson showed Mick Foley being struck with a metal chair 11 times. He was also later diagnosed with a concussion. During a 3 minute 30 second video at approximately one minute and two seconds into the video, there’s direct helmet to helmet contact by a player from the NFL’s Chicago Bears on Green Bay Packers’ quarterback Aaron Rodgers. The force of the hit pushed Rodgers helmet up his head and the chinstrap came to rest just below his nose. He was later diagnosed with a concussion.

Results

The most recent CDC report indicates that over 3.2 million people are living with some form of disability associated with the residual effects of TBI. However, focusing on a much smaller and more specialized demographic helped to show the effects within a shorter timeframe. Almost like a petri dish of this disorder. What was found in the observations was that severe force to the head did cause a concussion which later become classified as a traumatic brain injury. What all 3 had in common was a hit to the head that is not common in any activity people do daily. All 3 people who suffered the concussions from those hits also displayed severe side effects at one point. None reached the level of mental disorder but all reached, at minimum, migraine headaches.

Discussion

In the US, TBI is a significant public health problem and the important causes of mental disability and death in the US. Attention was drawn to this beginning in the 1990’s through the mid 2000’s as several professional athletes began committing suicide or dying very early on. The intensity of TBI cases within the US calls for immediate public health measures aimed at preventing the causes and improving the outcome. Healthcare surveillance records can be employed to give data that can be relied on in order to assess the risk factors, identify the trend, put in place effective programs and monitor their progress. It should be noted that most of the estimates of these incidences are based on varying sources of articles and calculation of figures and based on assumptions along with videos that did confirm concussions. Interviews with these individuals were not feasible in the time frame to complete this study. Therefore, their applicability should be highly established before making valid conclusions.

Conclusion

With the resources available, it became clear that there were direct correlations between forceful hits to the head that caused concussions which are classified as traumatic brain injury and can lead to migraine headaches and short-term memory loss. Severe side effects such as mental disorders were not made conclusive in these findings.

References

1. Corrigan, J. D., Selassie, A. W., & Orman, J. A. L. (2010). The epidemiology of traumatic brain injury. The Journal of head trauma rehabilitation, 25(2), 72-80.
2. Rutland-Brown, W., Langlois, J. A., Thomas, K. E., & Xi, Y. L. (2016). The incidence of traumatic brain injury in the United States, 2003. The Journal of head trauma rehabilitation, 21(6), 544-548.
3. Thurman, D. J., Alverson, C., Dunn, K. A., Guerrero, J., & Sniezek, J. E. (2014). Traumatic brain injury in the United States: a public health perspective. The Journal of head trauma rehabilitation, 14(6), 602-615.