February 15, 2017

Football and dementia

Boxing and American football are under scrutiny because of head injuries causing long-term damage to the brain, but the situation is much less clear for football where heading is extremely common, but head injuries are less so. Researchers from UCL and Swansea have been investigating the results of autopsies from a small number of retired professional footballers with dementia in an effort to determine whether their brains showed distinct damage compared to other typical dementia patients. The research published in Acta Neuropathologica.

Speakers:

Dr Don Williams, Honorary Consultant, Cefn Coed Hospital, Swansea, and Vice President of the Welsh Psychiatric Society

Dr Helen Ling, Senior Research Associate, Queen Square Brain Bank for Neurological Studies, UCL Institute of Neurology

Prof Huw Morris, Professor of Clinical Neuroscience, UCL Institute of Neurology and Consultant Neurologist, Royal Free Hospital and National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery