Secret Injuries: Retired Footballers Suffer Depression

Ivanhoe Newswire
Monday, June 4, 2007; 12:00 AM

By Vivian Richardson, Ivanhoe Health Correspondent

NEW ORLEANS (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Whether it's two linebackers colliding, a wayward baseball, or a fall on the hardwood court, many athletes risk concussion as they play their sport. Now, researchers report repeated traumatic head injuries can lead to depression and a lifetime of impairment.

Retired football players who report three or more concussions are three-times more likely to be diagnosed with depression than retired players who never reported a concussion. That's the finding of a new study by researchers at several schools, including the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Speaking at the American College of Sports Medicine's 54th Annual Meeting in New Orleans, Robert Cantu, M.D., a co-researcher from Emerson Hospital in Concord, Mass., said several recent examples of what repeated concussions can do to an athlete drive home the need to learn more about how to protect athletes and keep them from being re-injured.

Dr. Cantu talked about former Patriots linebacker Ted Johnson, who earlier this year went public about his struggle with depression and cognitive difficulties and how it cost him his career and a marriage. He's just 34 years old. It's a scenario too often seen in retired football players, like Andre Waters, the retired NFL player who committed suicide in 2006, or Mike Webster, the Hall of Fame player who died at age 50. Post-mortem examinations of Webster's brain revealed Alzheimer's-like tangles Dr. Cantu attributed to the repeated concussions suffered by Webster during his career.

"There are many instances where we heard players tell us that defensive backs would be stunned after a particular play and tell their fellow safety or fellow cornerback, 'Cover for me as best you can; I'm just going to try to make it through this play,'" said Dr. Cantu.

Researchers surveyed 2,552 retired professional football players. Just more than 11 percent reported a previous diagnosis of depression. Players with three or more concussions were three-times more likely to be in the depressed group, while players with one or two concussions were 1.5-times more likely to be depressed.