Progressive Post-traumatic Encephalopathy and Premature Ageing

Abstract

It was a particular purpose of this study to attempt to establish whether or not there was a condition which might properly be described as progressive post-traumatic encephalopathy. The earlier study by the author of the late effects of repeated minor head injuries in a random sample of ex-professional boxers had confirmed that this did occur in a small proportion of cases, but the very slowly progressing impairment of intellectual functions and personality exhibited by the majority of the boxers who had deteriorated later in life seemed most likely to be attributable to the effects of normal ageing superimposed upon an already damaged brain. With this evidence that repeated minor injury to the brain did seem, rarely, to be capable of producing a condition that would cause progressive damage long after the trauma had ceased, but that in most cases late deterioration was almost certainly due to the exaggerated effects of ageing, a detailed examination of these two possible explanations of progressive and late deterioration after a single injury seemed worthwhile. Every patient was questioned at length to elicit his own observations about increasing difficulties with memory, learning, expressing himself and job performance. In each case the relative was similarly asked for her observations of the spouse’s intellectual function over the years since the injury, and of any late changes in personality or behaviour.