2022 NFL Review | Are Concussions Increasing?
We saw an 18% increase in concussions in the 2022 NFL regular season. We know that repeated head injury leads to Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, CTE. With a 91% prevalence of CTE in former players (done only through autopsy), it is all but certain that our current players are on this road as well. What needs to be done to prevent this?
With the 2022 NFL Super Bowl squarely in the rear-view mirror, a season’s worth of conversations about concussions and brain injuries have been catapulted front and center into everyone's minds. A pair of statistics was recently released that paint the NFL in a relatively negative light when you look at the pair together. The first being a study released from Boston University's CTE Center that diagnosed 345 former NFL players with Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) out of a total of 376; making for a 91.7% diagnoses rate. The second statistic released was from the NFL’s own data. They self-reported a total of 149 concussions in the 271 games played over the 2022 regular season. This was an 18% increase from 2021’s 126 concussions. However, we must look at the details of these statistics closer to draw a more accurate conclusion.
An 18% increase in concussions year-over-year may seem like a huge jump for the NFL, but it may not be caused by an actual increase in total concussions, alone. Dr. Allen Sills, Chief Medical Officer of the NFL, attributes the increase to a number of factors. According to Sills, the NFL has changed protocols that have “broadened and strengthened” the definition of a concussion. This means that the increase seen this year could be because concussions are being diagnosed that in years passed would have been overlooked. Sills also reports that the league’s medical staff performed an average of 1.6 evaluations per game, which is an increase from years passed. Also, players have been much more willing to speak up and self-report concussions this year. Potentially because of the increased scrutiny and education on brain injuries in recent years. And finally, there were nearly twice as many medical timeouts in 2022 by on-field officials and medical evaluators. Does all this add up to the stated 18% increase? Maybe, maybe not. Either way it's good to see progress being made. Especially after the terrible hits Miami Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailao suffered earlier in the season.
Unfortunately, none of the measures listed above do anything to help with the arguably bigger problem; prolonged and repeated head injury that leads to Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy. CTE can cause impulse control problems, aggression, mood swings, depression, paranoia, anxiety, and in the worst of cases it can impair executive function, judgment, and short-term memory. It can even cause early onset dementia. And, to top it all off, CTE can only be diagnosed with a brain biopsy done posthumously. With a 91% prevalence rate in former players it is all but certain that our current players are on this road as well.
In conclusion, a question must be asked: what can we do to prevent AND treat these problems. The NFL has already begun looking into ways to prevent concussions. During the 2022 preseason, certain positions were required to wear Guardian Caps, a new type of helmet that better protects and cushions the brain. Those positions reported a 52% decrease in total concussions diagnosed during the pre-season. Requiring these for all players seems like the natural next step, but that will take valuable time. While we wait, hyperbaric oxygen therapy continues to look like the most promising treatment options for athletes and non-athletes alike. The NFL’s concussion protocol mimics what the national standard is: “hurry up and wait.” Luckily, thanks to hyperbarics, we can do better. We see symptom improvement and in some cases complete symptom resolution in as little as 3-5 treatments. This is orders of magnitude better than what could potentially be a weeks long recovery without hyperbarics. So, to the parents of student athletes and to the athletes themselves I say this: Don't tough it out. Don't go back into the game if you don't feel like yourself. Get looked over, and if needed, find a hyperbaric chamber.
By: Tanner Mjelde, Certified Hyperbaric Technician