Intro:
Sports related
concussions are a very common and considerably vague condition. Often, athletes
who receive a concussion will return to play as soon as possible, or lie so
they don’t have to get treated and abstain from playing their sport. Many times
when the athlete keeps playing, they will continue to get worse or will obtain
a secondary concussion, or “second-impact syndrome,” from a relatively small
force, due to already having a concussion and being more susceptible to getting
injured further. Secondary concussions can lead to worsening symptoms, a more
severe brain injury, brain damage, or even death. Eventually, after having
multiple concussions, an athlete may acquire a condition known as Chronic
Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE). All of these athletes have at least one thing
in common: they’ve all chosen to return to play, and keep playing their sport,
on their own. This fact brings on my question, “Why do athletes choose to keep
playing their sport, even after receiving one or more concussions?” Is it a
psychological issue? Or maybe a chemical imbalance? Could it simply be just an
undying love, respect, and drive to play the game? Whether it’s just one issue,
or all of these, plus some, in my paper, I plan to unpack this question and get
to the bottom of the “why.”
“League of Denial,” written by Mark
Fainaru-Wada and Steve Fainaru in 2013, is a book about the connection between
football and brain injuries, depression, and altered brain activity that lead
to early deaths, retirements, and players being diagnosed with serious and
life-threatening conditions, the most significant of which being, Chronic
Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE). Even though today, the fact that concussions
and football are linked, a few years ago no one knew enough about concussions and
associating the two caused a great deal of upheaval and struck many debates and
researches.
Guskiewicz, Kevin M, et al. "Association between recurrent concussion and late-life cognitive impairment in retired professional football players." Neurosurgery 57.4 (2005): 719-726. MEDLINE. Web. 12 Jan 2015.
In the 2005 Neurosurgery article written by Kevin M
Guskiewicz and many other authors, “Association between recurrent concussion
and late-life cognitive impairment in retired professional football players,”
bring to light the misunderstood and obscure effects of recurrent concussions
on the brain and the lingering neurological symptoms and conditions.
Hazrati, Lili-Naz, et al. "Absence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy in retired football players with multiple concussions and neurological symptomatology." 24 May 2013. Frontier Human Neuroscience. Web. 12 Feb. 2015.
Lili-Naz Hazrati and
quite few of her colleagues wrote an article in 2013 called, “Absence of
chronic traumatic encephalopathy in retired football players with multiple
concussions and neurological symptomatology.” This article focuses on the
science behind CTE, the study of CTE in football players, the results of those
studies and the connection between football and other brain-related conditions.
Gardner, Andrew. "The complex clinical issues involved in an athlete's decision to retire from collision sport due to multiple concussions: a case study of a professional athlete." 27 Sept. 2013. Frontier Neurology. Web. 12 Feb. 2015.
In September 2013,
Andrew Gardner wrote an article called, “The complex clinical issues involved
in an athlete’s decision to retire from collision sport due to multiple concussions:
a case study of a professional athlete.” Gardner confronts the issue of early
retirement and the factors athletes have to think of when thinking about
retirement. Many athletes have been advised to retire early because of their
past concussive history.
Doolan, Amy W, et al. "A Review Of Return To Play Issues and Sports Related Concussion." Annals of Biomedical Engineering 40.1 (2012): 106-113. MEDLINE. Web. 12 Feb 2015.
The article, “A review
of return to play issues and sports-related concussions,” written by Amy W
Doolan and a few others in 2012, highlights the importance of “return to play
guidelines.” It will serve as a background information source.
Strain, Jeremy, et al. "Depressive symptoms and white matter dysfunction in retired NFL players with concussion history." Neurology 81.1 (2013): 25-32. MEDLINE. Web. 14 Feb. 2015.
Jeremy Strain, along
with multiple other authors, wrote the 2013 article, “Depressive symptoms and
white matter dysfunction in retired NFL players with concussion history.” This
article brings us along their experimental path to connect depression in
professional football players to head injuries by observing white matter in
retired NFL players, who have a multiple concussion history, using brain scans.
Sedney, CL, J Orphanos, and JE Bailes. "When to consider retiring an athlete after sports-related concussion." Clinics in Sports Medicine 30.1 (2011): 189-200. CINAHL Complete. Web. 14 Feb 2015.
CL Sedney, J Orphanos,
and JE Bailes discuss when to consider retiring and what factors to contemplate
before retiring in the 2011 article, “When to consider retiring an athlete
after sports-related concussion.” They examine different conditions that come
from multiple concussions, brain assessments based on imaging and diagnoses,
and how it could affect you psychologically.
Bass III, Pat F. "Managing a patient after concussion." 01 Aug. 2014. Advanstar Communications Inc. Modern Medicine Network. 27 Jan. 2015.
Pat F. Bass III highlights
the protocol doctors take when caring for someone who has received a concussion
in his 2014 article, “Managing a patient after concussion.” Bass clarifies the
basic, yet crucial steps to take when addressing a concussed patent. This
article is useful for background information on concussion care and is more
elaborate than Amy W Doolan’s “A review of return to play issues and
sports-related concussion” article.
Cantu, RC, and JK Register-Mihalik. "Considerations for return-to-play and retirement decisions after concussion." PM & R: The Journal of Injury, Function, and Rehabilitation 3.10 Suppl 2 (2011): S440-S444. MEDLINE. Web. 15 Feb 2015.
RC Cantu and JK
Register-Mihalik wrote the article, “Considerations for return-to-play and
retirement decisions after concussion,” in 2011 to acknowledge the growing
struggle of deciding whether to risk getting injured further or just retire
from the game. They weigh in on the “complexity” of decisions, and the vast
amount of components that come into play when deciding. They also set out to
supply athletes with suitable fact-based information to use when deciding.
Span, Emma. "Briana Scurry." Sports Illustrated 121.1 (2014): 72-75. Academic Search Premier. Web. 17 Feb. 2015.
In the 2014 Sports
Illustrated article, “Briana Scurry,” Emma Span told the unfortunate story of
the U.S. women’s national team’s goalkeeper, Briana Scurry. Span examines the
concussion Scurry received in 2010 that caused her to retire early and resulted
in surgery and mental depression. Scurry’s injury highlights the risk for high
school female soccer players to receive concussions as well.
So far, the information that I have
collected has mostly come from databases online. I’ve used EBSCO, WebMD, and
“Frontiers in” scholarly journals. I have also used the book “League of
Denial,” which has many sources in the back of the book that I’ve taken a look
at & plan to use later on. In addition to the quite a bit of sources I have
so far, I am going to take advantage of the libraries at both of the schools I
attend, along with the librarians, continue to use online databases, divulge in
the labyrinth of sources in the back of my book, and conduct field studies. My
field studies will consist of “personal interviews” of my magnitude of doctors
I see on a regular basis, my father who has read a ton of books, articles, and
journals on concussion information, and possibly shadow my chiropractor or
physical therapist. I can also use my own experiences and previous knowledge to
fill some of the voids my research isn’t filling.
Project Timeline:
In the coming week, I have quite a
few doctors’ appointments that I will be able to conduct interviews at. My goal
there is to find out, in their experiences, why most athletes decide to return
to their sports even after enduring such traumatizing injuries. I would also
like to hear unique stories of recovery and further injury from some of their
other/past patients. I hope to also find out what kind of medication or
procedure they use most when treating a patient. With those medications and
procedures I will find out the pros and cons of each. I also will spend most of
my time catching up on the blog posts and assignments and will be done with
those by the end of the week (God willing). My research will consist of
narrowing some of my searches on the libraries online databases to find
exceedingly specific sources to my topic. My goal is to find the majority of my
sources by the end of the week and gain the most information out of those
sources as possible. I hope to go to the actual library and scope out some
books on concussions, recovery, and psychology. With all of this information I
should be able to draft my thesis and create a concrete argument. By February
19 I will have finished my annotated bibliography and will have started my
review of literature. Hopefully by the end of this week I will be on track to
start drafting my final paper and make sure I have all of the information I
need and that information is satisfactory.
Bass III, Pat F. "Managing a patient after
concussion." 01 Aug. 2014. Advanstar Communications Inc. Modern
Medicine Network. 27 Jan. 2015.
Fainaru-Wada, Mark, and Steve Fainaru. League of Denial. New York: Crown Archetype, 2013. Print.
Guskiewicz, Kevin M, et al. "Association between recurrent
concussion and late-life cognitive impairment in retired professional football
players." Neurosurgery 57.4 (2005): 719-726. MEDLINE. Web.
12 Jan 2015.
Hazrati, Lili-Naz, et al. "Absence of chronic traumatic
encephalopathy in retired football players with multiple concussions and
neurological symptomatology." 24 May 2013. Frontier Human
Neuroscience. Web. 12 Feb. 2015.
Gardner, Andrew. "The complex clinical issues involved in an
athlete's decision to retire from collision sport due to multiple concussions:
a case study of a professional athlete." 27 Sept. 2013. Frontier
Neurology. Web. 12 Feb. 2015.
Doolan, Amy W, et al. "A Review Of Return To Play Issues and
Sports Related Concussion." Annals of Biomedical Engineering 40.1
(2012): 106-113. MEDLINE. Web. 12 Feb 2015.
Strain, Jeremy, et al. "Depressive symptoms and white matter
dysfunction in retired NFL players with concussion history." Neurology 81.1
(2013): 25-32. MEDLINE. Web. 14 Feb. 2015.
Sedney, CL, J Orphanos, and JE Bailes. "When to consider
retiring an athlete after sports-related concussion." Clinics in
Sports Medicine 30.1 (2011): 189-200. CINAHL
Complete. Web. 14 Feb 2015.
Cantu, RC, and JK Register-Mihalik. "Considerations for
return-to-play and retirement decisions after concussion." PM
& R: The Journal of Injury, Function, and Rehabilitation 3.10
Suppl 2 (2011): S440-S444. MEDLINE. Web. 15 Feb 2015.
Span, Emma. "Briana Scurry." Sports Illustrated 121.1 (2014): 72-75. Academic Search Premier. Web. 17 Feb. 2015.
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