Traumatic Brain Injury: Study Links Concussions to Depression

A recent study indicates that the rate of clinically diagnosed depression in retired National Football League players is strongly correlated with the number of concussions they have suffered. The study was conducted by the University of North Carolina's Center for the Study of Retired Athletes and looked that a general health survey of 2,552 retired NFL players. The conclusions drawn by the study contrast the NFL's belief that concussions suffered in football have no long-term effects.

NFL: Survey Links Concussions to Depressions

The study is the most comprehensive to date and was published in the journal of the American College of Sports Medicine. Of 595 players who reported having three or more concussions on the field, 20.2 percent were later found to have symptoms of depression. This is three times the rate of players who had not suffered concussions. The report concludes that the data "call into question how effectively retired professional football players with a history of three or more concussions are able to meet the mental and physical demands of life after playing professional football."