Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy

Excerpt

Sports-related traumatic brain injury (TBI) has become increasingly popular in the scientific literature over the past few decades.However, the first mention of such a subject in the literature occurred in the 1920s with reference to the “punch drunk” syndrome of boxers. About a decade later, the term “dementia pugilistica,” which literally means “boxer’s dementia,” was born. The now more commonly used term chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) was coined later in the 1940s.This term has gained favor in the modern literature because it is now understood that exposure to TBI from any sport or source increases the risk for neurodegenerative disease first described in boxers. While there has been some effort to distinguish dementia pugilistica from CTE or to classify dementia pugilistica as a subtype of CTE, the two are now widely considered to be equivalent.Thus, while the term dementia pugilistica is certainly of historical significance, this article will focus on the neurodegenerative disease resulting from (mainly sports-related) TBI that is now most commonly referred to as CTE.