Grant: CIHR Fellowship

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a devastating neurodegenerative disorder characterized by progressive cognitive, psychiatric, and motor symptoms, and is caused by repetitive head impacts such as those seen in athletes of contact sports and military veterans. However, the exact causes of the disease progression, as well as its particular symptoms, is largely unknown, particularly for its psychiatric symptoms, which include depression and suicidality. As the foremost research group into CTE with the world's largest collection of pathologically-verified postmortem samples, we are examining prevalence, causes, and treatments for this disorder. My particular focus is on the psychiatric symptoms in these patients, and I am distinguishing between cases with and without depression or suicidality to determine whether and where particular brain pathology distinguishes between these groups. I am also investigating whether the causes of depressive symptoms in these cases might differ from non-CTE depressed individuals. Finally, I am attempting to determine the prevalence of suicide in a group at high risk for developing CTE. Together, these studies will inform how CTE can induce psychiatric symptoms, potentially leading to a better understanding of causes and treatments of this disorder, and may also inform regarding potential causes for psychiatric symptoms such as these in the general non-CTE population.