Former rugby players in concussion study showed only 'mild memory effects'
The negative effect of having multiple repeated concussions over the course of your life could not be as serious as originally thought.
Retired rugby players taking part in a study on the long-term effects of concussion were found to display only "some mild memory effects," researchers have concluded.
Fifty-two former Scotland rugby stars were recruited for the study at the University of Glasgow, which sought to gather more evidence about the health and wellbeing consequences later in life for athletes who sustained multiple concussions during their playing career.
Concussions suffered in sport have been linked to neurodegenerative disease and chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a progressive degenerative disease of the brain.
The 52 men, who had sustained an average of 14 concussions each, were analysed alongside 29 control volunteers.
Researchers "found that they only displayed some mild memory effects" in contrast to the volunteers.
They also reported no significant effects on daily life overall.
"Cognitive test results in the retired rugby players and the controls found few differences; the retired players performed less well on a test of verbal learning and on another test of fine co-ordination of the dominant hand, but these effects were mild," the university said.
Furthermore, there were no "significant associations" between the number of concussions and the participants' performances on cognitive tests.
Tom McMillan, professor of clinical neuropsychology from the Institute of Health and Wellbeing at the university, said: "Despite a high number of repeat concussions in the retired rugby players, effects on mental health, social or work function were not evident some 20 years after they had stopped playing.
"Overall, there is not a suggestion of widespread decline in daily function in ex-rugby internationalists who had a high number of repeat concussions.
"Although some differences in memory were found, these were mild overall and their cause uncertain."
New guidelines for dealing with concussion were published in Scotland in May last year.
The guidelines, said to be a global first, cover concussion management across all Scottish sports.
They were drawn up by the Scottish Government's Chief Medical Officer along with the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow, Scottish Football Association, Scottish Rugby Union and the sportscotland institute of sport.
Details of the latest study were published a day after the issue of head injuries in sport was raised during First Minister's Questions at Holyrood.
Conservative MSP Liz Smith asked whether there should be a standardised approach to serious concussion injuries across all sports, highlighting that suspension from the ring for such cases in boxing is at least 28 days, but just seven days in rugby.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon told her: "We do need to make sure that we keep this under review and that as we do so we are informed of the best medical opinion."
The study - Long-term health outcomes after exposure to repeated concussion in elite level: rugby union players - is published in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry.