Depressive Symptoms and Concussions in Aging Retired NFL Players
Open accessAbstract
We examined the relationship between a remote history of concussions with current symptoms of depression in retired professional athletes. Thirty retired National Football League (NFL) athletes with a history of concussion and 29 age- and IQ-matched controls without a history of concussion were recruited. We found a significant correlation between the number of lifetime concussions and depressive symptom severity using the Beck Depression Inventory II. Upon investigating a three-factor model of depressive symptoms (affective, cognitive, and somatic; Buckley et al., 2001) from the BDI-II, the cognitive factor was the only factor that was significantly related to concussions. In general, NFL players endorsed more symptoms of depression on all three Buckley factors compared with matched controls. Findings suggest that the number of self-reported concussions may be related to later depressive symptomology (particularly cognitive symptoms of depression).
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Neuropsychological assessment in former professional football players has confirmed the relationship between increased self-reported concussions and depression.
“Neuropsychological assessment in former professional football players has confirmed the relationship between increased self-reported concussions and depression [52].”
From The neuropathology of sport (2014) · cites this paper as [52]
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- Authors
- Didehbani, N., Munro Cullum, C., Mansinghani, S., Conover, H., & Hart, J.
- Affiliations
- The University of Texas at Dallas (US)
- Corresponding author
- Didehbani, N.
- Venue
- Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2013-05-03
- Volume
- 28
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 418-424
- ISSN
- 0887-6177 (ISSN-L)
- 1873-5843
- PMC
- PMC4007104
- OpenAlex
- W1964445215
- Cited by
- 150
- References
- 47
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 18 · 2020: 11 · 2019: 14 · 2018: 22 · 2017: 13 · 2016: 16 · 2015: 12 · 2014: 9 · 2013: 3
- FWCI
- 9.72
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- University of Texas at Dallas
- National Institute on Aging (P30AG012300)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Epidemiology › Traumatic Brain Injury Research
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Research
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Neurology › Long-Term Effects of COVID-19
- Keywords
- concussion, depressive symptoms, former athletes, National Football League players, cognitive symptoms of depression, affective symptoms, somatic symptoms, older athletes, sports-related brain injury, Beck Depression Inventory-II
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Aged, Aging, Brain Concussion, Depression, Football, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Neuropsychological Tests, Case-Control Studies, Athletes
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