Retired contact sports athletes with cognitive concerns: promoting lifelong brain health
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
There is widespread concern amongst former athletes about the link between head injury and dementia. Neurologists are increasingly assessing ex-contact sports athletes with cognitive and behavioural issues following repetitive head impacts and traumatic brain injury. Their assessment and management can be challenging due to the broad differential diagnosis, including psychiatric issues, trauma-related impairment and, in some cases, neurodegeneration. There may be a range of pathologies present after trauma exposure, including Alzheimer’s disease and chronic traumatic encephalopathy. Currently, we have only limited understanding of specific clinical phenotypes for distinct types of post-traumatic dementia, nor are there in vivo tests for many of the pathologies. Informed by our experience running a midlife brain health clinic for retired elite contact sport athletes, we describe a practical framework for the workup of athletes with cognitive concerns, highlighting key clinical features, an approach to investigation including neuroimaging and advanced fluid biomarkers, symptomatic management strategies, and research directions.
Date Issued
2026-04-01
Date Acceptance
2025-09-22
Citation
Practical Neurology, 2026, 26 (2), pp.106-115
ISSN
1474-7758
Publisher
BMJ Publishing Group
Start Page
106
End Page
115
Journal / Book Title
Practical Neurology
Volume
26
Issue
2
Copyright Statement
© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2026. Re-use permitted under CC BY. Published by BMJ Group. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported (CC BY 4.0) license, which permits others to copy, redistribute, remix, transform and build upon this work for any purpose, provided the original work is properly cited, a link to the licence is given, and indication of whether changes were made. See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
License URL
Identifier
10.1136/pn-2025-004786
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2025-10-08