American Medical Society for Sports Medicine
For Immediate Release Apr 22, 2008

OVERLAND PARK, KANSAS:  Bennet Omalu, MD, MBA, MPH presented a featured lecture at the Rendezvous II meeting held in Las Vegas, NV. His Lecture entitled “The Link Between the Field and Dementia” provided information on Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE).

The lecture gave a historical perspective of CTE and discussed how this condition can be induced by playing the game of american football. CTE was described as a clinical syndrome that is characterized by neuropsychiatric, intellectual, and cognitive changes. Dr. Omalu presented the evidence he has gathered from the autopsies of four former NFL players and one former professional wrestler. Each of the five subjects had long careers, and each developed clinical characteristics consistent with CTE. Dr. Omalu also described his autopsies which found microscopic changes in each of their brains that correlate with CTE. These five individuals included Michael Webster, Terry Long, Andre Waters, Justin Strzelczyk, and Chris Benoit.

Dr. Bennet Omalu is a forensic neuropathologist and serves as the Chief Medical Examiner for San Joaquin County in California. He is also the author of a recent book on the same topic entitled “Play Hard, Die Young: Football, Dementia, Depression, and Death”. 

The American Medical Society for Sports Medicine (AMSSM) was organized in 1991 by physicians who recognized the need for an organization within the field of sports medicine that approached athletes, exercising individuals and teams comprehensively with consultative and continuous care of their orthopedic, medical, nutritional and psychosocial issues. Although sports medicine concepts are often thought of in conjunction with professional and elite athletes, these concepts apply to athletes of all levels including grade school, high school, college and recreational athletes. AMSSM is comprised of over 1000 Sports Medicine Physicians whose goal is to provide a link between the rapidly expanding core of knowledge related to sports medicine and its application to patients in a clinical setting.

NOTE: For more information, please contact the AMSSM, 11639 Earnshaw, Overland Park, KS 66210, (913) 327-1415.