Sportspeople considering cutting their careers short for fear of concussion-related degenerative illness should be aware the science is only in its infancy, a visiting US expert says.
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Grant Iverson, a professor at Harvard Medical School, was in Melbourne on Thursday and spoke to staff at the Royal Children's Hospital about the best way to manage sport concussions in the immediate and longer term.
This year several AFL players retired after getting multiple knocks to the head, some suffering ongoing symptoms from their concussions.
Questions about the consequences of blows to the head were also raised when tens of thousands watched UFC fighter Holly Holm knock out favourite Ronda Rousey in Melbourne recently.
There is also growing public concern about the risks of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative disease that happens to people who have had multiple brain traumas.
Iverson said it was clear that when an athlete suffers repeated injuries to their knee and opts for rounds of surgery rather than going into retirement, he or she risks significant long term degenerative changes to that knee.
But medical researchers knew much less about the brain than other parts of an athlete's body.
"I would say the science relating to CTE is still in its infancy, there are very few good studies relating to CTE," he said.
"We know far less than what you would think from some of the media reporting of it."
Clinicians did not know exactly how to diagnose CTE, he said, and had only recently decided on what it looked like in the brain.
Iverson said the syndrome had been broadened to include a wide range of symptoms, including depression, feeling suicidal, headaches and problems controlling anger.
"We need to do a lot more research to know if those symptoms and problems are really associated with the neuropathology," he said.
Last year one of the AFL's concussion exerts Paul McCrory told ABC radio there was increasing scepticism around the world about whether the condition even exists.
But there are many researchers who have serious concerns about brain degeneration as a result of concussion and the AFL has commissioned its own study into the brains of retired footballers who had several knocks to the head.
Thousands of former American football players have sought compensation from the NFL over medical conditions associated with head trauma, and more 50 former NFL players have been diagnosed with CTE after they died.
Iverson said the decision to retire from a contact sport was challenging for any athlete, and their family, team and medical staff.
"Some athletes might decide to retire because they're concerned about their health, and their future health ... that's entirely up to them," he said.
