Uncharted Brain 2 : the family trauma of dementia from sports injuries

Dementia doesn’t just affect older people. Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a form of dementia that athletes from a whole range of sports can develop. It’s now at the centre of a number of legal challenges involving sports from rugby to American football. In the second episode of Uncharted Brain: Decoding Dementia, hosts Gemma Ware and Paul Keaveny from The Conversation find out about the toll this type of dementia can take on family members, who are often unaware of what’s happening to their loved ones.

This episode features interviews with Matthew Smith, a senior lecturer in sport and exercise psychology at the University of Winchester in the UK and Lisa McHale, director of family relations at the Concussion Legacy Foundation.

Uncharted Brain is produced by Tiffany Cassidy with sound design by Eloise Stevens. The executive producer is Gemma Ware. Read full credits here.

Further reading:

Sport-induced traumatic brain injury: families reveal the ‘hell’ of living with the condition