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Junior Seau, former linebacker for the San Diego Chargers, was found dead in his home Wednesday in what police are calling an apparent suicide.
Former NFL star Junior Seau’s death on Wednesday is fueling debate over whether football’s big hits leave some players with lingering brain damage that can lead to depression and possibly even suicide.
The police have yet to determine whether the 43-year-old linebacker did, in fact, commit suicide. But because his death follows so closely on the heels of two high-profile suicides in former NFL defensive backs, many are wondering if the concussions Seau sustained during his 20 years as a hard-hitting star, known mostly for his stint with the San Diego Chargers, including the 1994 Super Bowl team, were implicated in his death.
In February 2011, former Chicago Bear Dave Duerson committed suicide at age 50, choosing to shoot himself in the chest so that scientists could look for signs of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a brain disease linked to head blows that can culminate in dementia and other symptoms. And just last month, former Atlanta Falcon Ray Easterling, who had sued the NFL for mismanaging players’ concussions, shot and killed himself at age 62.
Experts interviewed by msnbc.com were mixed in their opinions on whether Seau’s concussions could have led to his apparent suicide. All agreed that there should be more research on the impact of head injuries on the risk for depression and suicide.
“I think the evidence is very strong in both human and animal studies that repeated concussions that occur very close in time can result in depression and other emotional disorders that can lead to suicide,” said David Hovda, a professor of neurosurgery and director of the University of California, Los Angeles, Brain Injury Research Center. “Whether they are the sole reason for the suicide, I don’t think can be determined.”
Hovda believes it’s possible that Seau shot himself in the chest so that he, like Duerson, might leave his brain for scientists to study.
Dr. Douglas Smith was more cautious.
“There’s beginning to be an assumption that repeated exposure to head injuries can make you suicidal,” said Smith, a professor of neurosurgery and director of the Center for Brain Injury and Repair at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. “It’s certainly suspicious and something that we should absolutely look into.”
But Smith cautioned that people shouldn’t assume that concussions will always lead to permanent brain damage. “There are many highly functioning individuals who have had a series of concussions -- captains of industry, politicians -- who are doing very well,” he said.
The issue is a lot more murky for Pittsburgh Steelers' team neurosurgeon, Dr. Joseph Maroon, who was quick to point out the high incidence of depression among Americans who haven’t ever had an injury to their brains.
“Depression is one of the most common diseases that affect people in the United States,” said Maroon, a professor of neurosurgery and the Heindl Scholar in Neuroscience at the University of Pittsburgh. “Some 10 to 15 percent of American who have not played football will have pathologic depression at some time in their lives. The most commonly prescribed drugs in the United States are antidepressants.
“Given that, we also know that there may be a relationship in some individuals between multiple blows to the head, or even a single blow to the head, that can result in abnormal and pathological behavior. In an individual case, in this one for instance, from what I’ve read so far, I don’ t think there’s any way you can definitively say that this was directly related to football.”
Nevertheless, Maroon said, people are taking concussion damage far more seriously these days. “There’s been a major cultural shift in the recognition and appreciation of post-concussive effects,” he said.
A very emotional Luisa Seau, mother of former NFL player Junior Seau, and his sister Annette, talk to the media.
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Depression is just one of the signs and symptoms of Schizophrenia which may be secondary from physical ailments or from the mental ailments or from the environmental ailments.
Not necessarily. Schizophrenia and depression often occur in the same person, and schizophrenia can lead to depression, but it is not "just a symptom". Deprssion frequently occurs totally idependent of schizophrenia, and they appear to have very different mechanisms.
What can't people accept that a possible reason he took his life was because he didn't have the attention that he used to get.
People could speculate that getting knocked in the head could have prevented suicide just as some speculate that it contributes to suicide. Look at the number of players who have had concussions and not committed suicide. How do we reconcile that there are more that have had concussions and not committed suicide than concussions that committted suicide?
Junior Seau was the best defensive player in San Diego Chargers history. Seau was a legend on and off the field, especially to San Diegans like myself who grew up with his name everywhere. Why would he feel so alone and helpless in a city that adores him?
The suicide of former NFL superstar and philanthropist Junior Seau earlier this month has left many of us, particularly fans of the late linebacker, wondering why. Why would someone with seemingly every reason to live choose to end it all?
redd.it/u41bi
Interesting. My brother suffered severe head trauma in a car accident when he was a highway patrol officer about 35 years ago. He also had suffered at least one concussion playing high school football. After the accident, he suffered seizures for which the various doctors had no explanations. Because of the seizures, he could no longer have a driver's license, so could no longer be a patrol officer. He definitely battled depression. He eventually took his own life, around 10 years after the car accident. I have no medical or scientific background, but I do see uncanny similarities between some of the details of my brother's situation and some of those in the story.
Maybe Junior Seau was depressed when he took his life. With his fame, money and good looks it is hard for us to see what he would be depressed about.
It does seem reasonable that Junior’s depression came from the hundreds of concussion he sustained in his storied career. After all, when Dave Duerson took his own life he wanted his brain sent to the "NFL brain bank" for study.
And like Junior, Duerson was black -- as were two others last year with similar fate.
Could it be then that concussions are more severe on the brains of our black athletes?
Or is everyday life in our white man's world more severe on the psyche of our black athletes than we ever cared to wonder.
Junior was not black, he was Samoan, if I recall correctly.
you recalled correctly. Nice try there Goerge, but Jr was not black at all.
Junior was indeed Samoan, not black.
"hundreds of concussions".... sorry but somebody would be long dead before they ever had 100 concussions. He may well have had in the range of 10 concussions but "hundreds" is absolutely not possible, let alone the actual case.
alright, can we please not turn this into a race issue???? Leave it alone. The poor man took his life for only reason he knows. Leave it at that!
No, it was not brain injury related, it was a heart/life injury related!
One less legal gun owner.
Always one smart a$$ in the group.
Give it a rest! Let people grieve for Junior and cut the crap, 'lukewarmandyellow'! Name fits perfectly, except it should be 'icecoldandyellow'!!!
May he now have peace in his life. Condolences to his family and friends.
lukewarmand yellow, your post and opinion are as worthless as a kunt full of cold piss
Facts bother you folks?
LOL! Guess they do........
I know from first hand experience that depression is a terrible thing. I understand the pain behind Junior Seau's act, however, I can never condon his action. There is always help if you look for it. He was such an upright man. Such a shame his life ended, far too soon, the way it did. May God have mercy on his soul.
If football were a drug monitored by the FDA it would be removed from the market. Any parent who lets their kid play football might as well be poisoning them. Would you put your kid out on the field knowing that 1 in 1000 is going to be shot? beaten up? limbs busted? tortured? That is football.
Shot? I find it unlikely that 1 in 1000 players is shot.
Xant- you should check you facts. Soccer has a higher injury rate than many contact/collision sports such as field hockey, rugby, basketball, and football, with players younger than age 15 at higher relative injury risk compared with older players, concludes a clinical report in the February 2010 journal Pediatrics
While a definitive scientific link between brain injury and depression, suicide or bizarre behavior may yet to be established, it seems common sense that an injury that has the potential to alter normal brain physiology for the long term is likely to be linked to depression etc.
RIP Junior! You were one of San Diego's Finest!! All around Good Guy! Hopefully you will find Peace in the after life.... #55
....and they pried the gun from his cold dead hands......just the way he wanted...
Dude, seriously, what is your damage? What the heck to guns have to do with anything? Wanna talk about banana cream pie as well? From the looks of it I think YOU might need a CT Scan to check for some major damage.
But hey, if he used a Machete you'd probably be railing for all kitchen knives to be banned!
My first thoughts are for his family. RIP Junior, whatever it is you had it. great player, great guy
guess if he'd stuck a banana cream pie up against his chest and pulled the trigger, he'd still be around....(by the way, I'm not the one committing suicide with a legally purchased weapon, remember?......)
Randum?
Brain specialists won't be able to say with certainty that multiple concussions were behind this but as someone who works with this population it can't help. There is also the ego insult of not being famous and feared anymore. It's a type of addiction for many in sports and even other endeavors as well, and to try and make the adjustment of being our of the limelight is a real difficulty for many.
Its embarrassing to see so many seemly intelligent speculate, about how Junior Seau came to make the most complex and difficult decision of his life, without facts, physical evidence or witness statements. Then to build those speculations into a creature of pure fantasy and invention by breathing life into it to turn it into a crusade against head injuries. I think that the only way we are going to have full protection against head injuries is to remove the heads from the shoulders of children and keep it safe in a protective and locked container.
What a naive way to dismiss a legitimately serious situation. CTE is very real and has proven to be a MAJOR issue that is only now coming to light due to advances in medical science. If you actually did some research instead of posting flippant remarks on forums you might actually see the seriousness in this situation!
It's definitely something to look into. I had no idea who Seau was until yesterday (not a sports person), so I can't make any judgments about his previous mental health or any other issues that may have been present (though from most peoples' reactions, it was completely unexpected). But I do know that otherwise mentally stable people have gone on to kill others (usually in murder-suicides) when they developed brain tumors on particular parts of their brains. The first time the tumor is discovered is usually at autopsy.
This next part gets a little graphic, so just a head's up.
The brain is so tricky to study because it doesn't stay intact postmortem. It just kind of falls apart in your hands (I've heard it compared to tapioca and jello), and that's just exacerbated by firearm deaths. You'll see obvious things like tumors and aneurysms, but when it comes to really dissecting the brain? It's just not very easy to do, and you can't put it back together when you do. It just...kind of becomes a pile of zombie chow.
It's really interesting to theorize on how seemingly benign (in the sense that there were apparently no lasting effects) head injuries can have such drastic effects on mental health. You'd think of it just as a physical injury. But structural changes in the brain can have profound effects on one's mental health.
And because I'm sure many of you will need something to get that unpleasant mental image out of your head, have a nest of baby bunnies: http://squee.icanhascheezburger.com/2012/04/30/cute-animals-nest-of-fluff/
We'll never know the answer to this. Just protect the current players and warn the former ones. Quit speculating on this and let his family grieve in peace.
This is a discussion forum to discuss and speculate what caused this. This is what these forums are all about and you don't have to participate if you don't like what people discuss.
No one will ever be able to say why anyone commits suicide, with any certainty. No one knows to what degree anyone else is suffering inside, and when they are about to give up hope. This man had the means to seek help, but instead committed an act that will cause his own family to suffer for the rest of their lives. You can go back and look at what motivates people to be the "best" at anything, why they are driven to succeed so strongly and maybe some of the answer is there. When I read this I first thought of Alexis Arguello, the great boxing world champion, who also shot himself in the chest, and certainly took at least as much injury to his brain as Junior Seau. There's been others in football and other sports with head injuries also, but many that have done well too, so could it be the letdown after so many years of fame and adulation? Or perhaps the inability to adapt oneself to a normal existence after being the object of so much adulation for so long? Who knows, but if you don't appreciate the fact that you are alive, and aren't willing to stick it out to the bitter end like most people do, then maybe you have a defect that's been there all along. I know what it takes to be a professional athlete, and a world class athlete, and I think only a person driven to extremes can achieve that, and I feel the same way about the act of suicide, only an extreme person is capable of doing it, except perhaps people that are faced with complete hopelessness, such as someone diagnosed with a terminal disease. But even then, most of them cling to life until the end. With a suicide, you just have to really put the blame on the person who did it, celebrate the good things they did in life, and try to move on. I am grateful these days when no one else has to die with them.
I believe to some degree it is related to football.