by The shooter, who opened the fire in Midtown Manhattan on Monday and killed four people before turning the gun on his own, left a note in which “CTE” was mentioned several times. Officials who were familiar with the investigation announced NBC News.
CTE or chronic traumatic encephalopathy is a state of brain that is caused by repeated injuries to the head, typically over many years.
The shooter aimed at the headquarters of the National Football League, which is located in the Avenue Park, in which the shootout took place, the authorities said.
While CTE cannot be officially diagnosed without autopsy, a third of the former NFL players suspect that they have the illness, as can be seen from a report from 2024. The NFL confirmed the connection between CTE and football in 2016 for the first time.
It was found that the former NFL player Phillip Adam’s severe CTE after he had knocked on six people before taking his own life in South Carolina in 2021.
NBC News spoke to Dr. Aaron Lord, the head of neurology at Nyu Langone, who specializes in brain injuries, about how CTE changes the brain and behavior of a person.
What is chronic traumatic encephalopathy?
First characterized in boxers, the disease was referred to as “punch drunk syndrome” and can lead to neurological diseases, including dementia, memory disorders, changes in personality and movement disorders, similar to Parkinson’s disease, said Lord.
CTE can affect anyone who violates repeated head injuries.
“It’s just about repeating repeating shock waves in the brain,” he said.
The connection of the disease to suicide and suicide thoughts is an area of the active study, partly because there seems to be a higher CTE rate for top-class athletes who have committed suicide, said Lord.
Nevertheless, experts did not conclude any conclusions about “the incidence and prevalence of this disease in the population or with certain athletes,” he said.
“It is a new one that we are still defining,” he said.
How is CTE diagnosed?
Doctors cannot diagnose CTE without autopsy, and even then it can be difficult to determine because there are no specific criteria to diagnose it, said Lord. An autopsy must result in indications of tissue regeneration and abnormal lumps of certain proteins by blood vessels in the brain.
Some patients and their doctors can speculate that they have the disease because their moods and their behavior differ. Patients also know whether they have suffered strokes on the head, how many and how serious.
Lord said that an MRI of the brain in affected patients could show some changes that are compatible with the disease but is not sufficient for a diagnosis.
There are some overlaps in symptoms with psychiatric disorders, including severe depressive disorder, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, said Lord.
Lord has also seen a connection between patients with CTE and murder ideas and impulsiveness as well as other personality changes.
Lord tends to see the disease in older people, possibly due to earlier repeated effects, but even a hit on the head can cause damage, even if this trauma does not lead to CTE.
“Even someone who had a single car accident and injured the frontal lobes of her brain can have permanent personality changes, impulse control and psychiatric changes,” he said.
Is there a treatment for CTE?
Although there is no direct treatment for the disease, psychiatric drugs can help with behavioral control and other symptoms, said Lord.
Not everyone who receives a concussion develops according to the Mayo clinic CTE. Prevention is the best medication: Avoiding head injuries by using seat belts or helmets can reduce the risk of a CTE and other brain injuries, said Lord.
This article was originally published on nbcnews.com
