Traumatic brain injury, symptoms of depression and sleep dysfunction in former elite rugby players

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ID: 334053
2026
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Abstract
Abstract While self-reported repetitive head impact (RHI) exposure in former athletes has been associated with symptoms of depression and sleep dysfunction, it is uncertain whether these symptoms are mediated by changes in brain structure. We used cross-sectional data from 57 middle-aged, cognitively healthy, former elite rugby players and 114 propensity-matched controls. Questionnaires were used to collect self-reported traumatic brain injury (srTBI: blows to the head; episodes of feeling dazed and confused; episodes of loss of consciousness), RHI exposure (career length, play at the highest level, and playing position), medical history, symptoms of depression (Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression scale) and sleep dysfunction (Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index). Grey matter volumes and diffusion tensor imaging measures were obtained using FreeSurfer (v7.1.0, v7.4.2) and FSL (v6.0.5). We assessed how srTBI, RHI exposure, symptoms of depression, sleep dysfunction, and the imaging markers were related using spearman correlations, multivariate regression models and partial least squares structural equation modelling. Although former rugby players reported higher number of blows to the head (9.8 vs 5.4, p<0.001), number of episodes of feeling dazed and confused (4.5 vs 1.7, p<0.001), and number of episodes of loss of consciousness (1.9 vs 0.7, p<0.001), they were less likely to report a past diagnosis of anxiety (7% vs. 22%, p=0.03) or sleep disorders (2% vs. 15%, p=0.02) than controls. In rugby players, srTBI correlated poorly with RHI exposure. Furthermore, srTBI, but not RHI exposure was associated with previous depression, anxiety and sleep disorders. Higher srTBI was directly associated with more symptoms of depression (B:0.52[95%CI:0.21-0.74]), and indirectly associated with more sleep dysfunction (B:0.18[95%CI:0.03-0.39]), fully mediated through symptoms of depression. Higher srTBI was also associated with a larger putamen (r=0.28,p=0.03) and inferior-tubular hypothalamus (r=0.35,p=0.007), thicker medial orbitofrontal (r=0.32,p=0.02) and insular cortices (r=0.40,p=0.002), lower axial diffusivity of the inferior cerebellar peduncle (r=-0.28,p=0.03) and uncinate fasciculus (r=-0.26,p=0.048), lower fractional anisotropy (r=-0.44,p<0.001) and higher radial diffusivity (r=0.29,p=0.03) of the tapetum. Symptoms of depression were associated with thicker superior (r=0.30,p=0.02) and inferior (r=0.33,p=0.01) parietal cortices, higher fractional anisotropy of the hippocampal cingulum (r=0.27,p=0.04) and lower mean diffusivity of the fornix (r=-0.28,p=0.03). None of these imaging markers mediated the association between srTBI and symptoms of depression. SrTBI, but not RHI exposure, was associated with symptoms of depression in former rugby players. However, this relationship was not mediated through differences in brain structure suggesting that psychosocial or methodological factors such as recall bias and common method bias may be more important.
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Authors Axel Anders Stefan Laurell, Maria‐Eleni Dounavi, Audrey Low, Elijah Mak, Maja Swirska, Graciela Muniz-Terrera, Benjamin Underwood, Yves Dauvilliers, Ivan Koychev, BRIAN A. LAWLOR, Lorina Naçi, Paresh Malhotra, William Stewart, Craig Ritchie, John O'Brien, and the PREVENT Dementia investigators, Katie Bridgeman, Leonidas Chouliaras, Siobhan Coleman, Hannah Darwin, Maria‐Eleni Dounavi, Feng Deng, Robert B. Dudas, Sarah Gregory, Ivan G. Koychev, BRIAN A. LAWLOR, Audrey Low, Clare Mackay, Elijah Mak, Paresh Malhotra, Graciela Muniz Terrera, Lorina Naçi, John O’Brien, Vanessa Raymont, Craig William Ritchie, Li Su, Peter Swann, Tony Thayanandan, Guy B. Williams
Journal Brain communications
Year 2026
DOI
10.1093/braincomms/fcag404
URL
https://doi.org/10.1093/braincomms/fcag404
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