Retired NFL players with history of concussions have reduced cognitive performance, study shows
BOSTON - A study conducted by Mass General Brigham shows that a number of NFL players who experienced concussion symptoms during their careers showed reduced cognitive performance decades after retirement. "What we found is that the effects of concussion seem to be long-lasting," Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School Dr. Laura Germine said.
A total of 353 players were part of the study. The average age was 55 years old. All of them had a history of concussion symptoms throughout their NFL career. The test consisted of a number of different cognitive functions like speed, memory and attention.
"The areas where we saw the most association with concussions symptom history were areas of processing speed. These guys were fast, but for these older guys who had finished playing on average 30 years ago, their responses were notably slower than those who had never played football," Germine said.
Julius Thomas played in the NFL for seven years. He's now Professor of Neuroscience at Nova Southeastern University. "There is this difference between the way a person leaves the league and the way a person ends up many years later. Could there be some effects from playing football that creates an increased or more rapid cognitive decline? Absolutely. But we don't know to which degree yet," Thomas said.
Germine says what's so special about this particular study was that it was player led. They worked closely with the former NFL players to talk about what are the issues and concerns they were most worried about decades after the game.
"So really thinking about how all these things link together and how do you take care of the whole person and serve the needs of this community," she said.
Thomas says he's now taken his passion of the game off the field advocating to maintain player health and wellbeing. "I love how academics and researchers are getting this data out there. And I am always going to keep advocating for how do we maintain player health," Thomas said.
