No certainty or direct line of evidence exists. however, it is tempting to speculate a damaged brain leads to irrational behavior. Wait! Did I just say that? It has me thinking about irrational behavior like walking into a theater and blowing people away or attaching an elementary school. Could it be there is such a connection?? Who knows the real reason people behave as they do?.
I just think we all should reserve judgement if we don't know and sometimes you never know. The fact that this is happening all over, does not support head injury, in my mind. Some make it sound like this is a "modern" problem. There have been serial killersand murders forever in all counties. All I am saying is you cannot draw lines on this. Sometimes things happen and you are powerless over free will. Mass shootings just bring it right in front of your face. I personally see this as a societal issue right now, generally. But I could be wrong too.
How many examples do you need? The list grows longer every year..
CTE could also explain a lot of the violence and depression for military personell that are currently diagnosed with PTSD.
According to Veterans United, about 230,000 soldiers who were deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan are reported to have brain trauma.
Initially, patients begin to have poor concentration, attention, and memory along with disorientation, dizziness, and headaches. They typically progress to experience irritability, outbursts of violent or aggressive behavior, confusion, and speech abnormalities. During this stage of the disease, there is a high frequency of suicide, drug overdose, and mood disorders, mainly major depressive disorder [5]. A study by Omalu and colleagues describes a similar clinical profile with a latent asymptomatic period between play and symptom onset. He reports worsening of cognitive and social functioning leading to poor money management, bankruptcy, social phobias, paranoid ideation, insomnia, poor relationships, divorce, emotional/physical abuse, and substance abuse [18]. Family and friends of the affected individuals reported many of these symptoms to researchers through standard forensic interviews [18].
As the disease progresses in severity, there is a greater loss of motor functioning. Some patients may develop Parkinsonian symptoms of tremors, masked facieses, wide propulsive gait, poor speech, ocular abnormalities, vertigo, bradykinesia, deafness, and a small group developing dementia. Currently, the number of cases with confirmed dementia remains small. As more postmortem exams are done in the at risk group, it is expected more cases will be diagnosed. Some individuals with CTE have committed suicide, overdosed on drugs, or died from accidents preventing progression of the disease
Veterans and NFL players both suffering here from head trauma. Interesting to note that suicides have overtaken combat deaths in theatre. I would like to see how many of those suicides are connected to head trauma.
Thomas Sowell: There are no solutions, just trade-offs.
Some additonal info. In a New Republic interview, Obama addresses the concussion etc issue and says he doesn't know if he would want his son to go into football because of the chance for severe head injuries.
Historically Soccer has more concussions since they don't have helmets, but I wonder if they are lighter because they don't have helmets. Helmets might give football players a false sense of security and they might hit each other harder.
Thomas Sowell: There are no solutions, just trade-offs.
