Dr. Willie Stewart joined the Michigan Concussion Center on Thursday, January 28 for a talk entitled: “Chronic traumatic encephalopathy: major issue or minor TReND?”

Dr. Stewart’s presentation dove into the history of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) while focusing on the four common misperceptions about CTE, which include:

• CTE is an inevitable consequence of participation in some sports
• CTE is the only neurodegeneration linked to TBI
• Mental health issues, including suicide, are proven features of CTE
• Neurodegeneration and TBI links are unique to sports (or at least CTE is)

Dr. Stewart is a consultant neuropathologist and honorary associate professor in Glasgow and an adjunct associate professor at Penn. Through multiple research programs, Dr. Stewart’s lab leverages the unique resources of the Glasgow TBI Archive to characterize the pathology of traumatic brain injury across all severities and survival time points. Dr. Stewart also leads the FIELD study, looking at lifelong health outcomes in former soccer players, and is co-lead of CONNECT-TBI, a Center Without Walls initiative bringing together tissue archives and research expertise from multiple international institutions to characterize TBI related neurodegeneration (TReND). 

You can view the entire presentation below.