CTE: Not just a sports injury

Last spring, I took some time to try to understand why so many soldiers have PTSD, and what we can do about TBI. Mental health is hugely stigmatized in this country (and, I suspect, throughout the world) as being a sign of weakness. And brain injuries represent a totally separate, harder category for healing, because there’s still so much we don’t know about the brain.

And then I found out about CTE – chronic traumatic encephalopathy. Most people diagnosed with it are former athletes. And, unfortunately, at this time, the only way to diagnose it is postmortem, through an autopsy.

Most people who discuss CTE look at late stage symptoms, which mimic Alzheimer’s disease. Early stage symptoms are, too often, unrecognized or misdiagnosed. In fact, in speaking with several psychologists at the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the primary group for supporting law enforcement in the US,  they did not acknowledge that there are symptoms earlier than the dementia. This does not seem to be uncommon: many people who work with CTE claim it is an aging disease, and there aren’t early symptoms.

And then there was this: a 27 year old former football player took his own life by overusing prescription medications, but was found to have CTE.

What does early-stage CTE look like? “Memory loss, confusion, impaired judgment, impulse control problems, aggression, depression, anxiety, (and) suicidality” are some of the symptoms according to Boston University’s CTE Center.

Several – if not all – of these symptoms are also associated with PTSD.

PTSD is treated with medications for mental illness – chemical changes in the brain. If someone who does not have the illness takes medications to alter their brain chemistry, it changes it for the worse, causing additional problems. It also causes additional emotional issues when the treatment does not work (because it is addressing the wrong problems).

It is my belief – and, as always, I acknowledge that I am not a doctor or psychologist or any other kind of medical professional – that part of the reason PTSD is so bad within the Army is that we are misdiagnosing and mistreating structural brain injuries as chemical imbalances. And this mistreatment leads to more problems, both from the brain chemistry issues and from frustration when treatment fails.

Luckily, the Army has options.

First, it must acknowledge that it, like professional sports, has a CTE problem.

Second, it must start to treat CTE.

Wait. There are CTE treatments? Then why aren’t the sports leagues using it? The first answer is easy: yes. The second is more complicated. Too much of this country and medical treatment is run by pharmaceutical companies. And big pharma does not have the solution. Hyperbaric chambers have been shown somewhat effective in treatment. Laser light therapy has been shown to be VERY effective.

In the next few months, we are hoping to show the Army just HOW effective laser light therapy can be.

If you know any soldiers/veterans who would be interested in participating in a two month trial of laser light therapy in healing brain injuries, please contact me to learn more.