Younger start in football linked to risk of mood problems

BOYS WHO start playing American football before their 12th birthday may be at sharply increased risk of behavioural and mood problems later in life compared to peers who hit the gridiron later, according to a recent US study.

Among former professional, college and high school football players, those with earlier exposure to the game were more than twice as likely to report impairments in regulating their behaviour, while they had triple the risk of depression symptoms, Dr Robert Stern of Boston University and his colleagues found.

“The findings suggest that being hit in the head repeatedly during what might be a critical window of neurodevelopmental vulnerability may increase risk for later-life emotional, behavioural and executive dysfunction,” Stern told Reuters Health in a telephone interview.

Repetitive head impacts, even when they do not lead to a full- fledged concussion, are associated with cognitive, behavioral and mood problems in ex-football players, Stern’s team writes in Translational Psychiatry. Repeated blows to the head are also associated with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain condition that can only be diagnosed after death.

Not everyone exposed to repetitive head impacts develops CTE, the authors stress, so other factors - including age at first exposure to play - may make a person more or less vulnerable to lasting brain damage.

The researchers had 214 former football players complete a battery of tests of behavior, mood and cognition by telephone. Those who began playing before age 12 - just under half of the group - had more depressive symptoms and more apathy than those who started playing later.

Executive functioning, a set of mental skills that help people stay organised and get things done, was also worse, on average, in the players who started football earlier. These players also had more difficulty regulating their behaviour. — Reuters