Brain disease linked to rugby and boxing found in brains of homeless people

CTE, a brain condition linked to repeated head injuries in sport, has for the first time been identified in people who had experienced homelessness.

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) – often linked to boxing, rugby and American football – was detected in post-mortem examinations of people with a history of homelessness, marking the first confirmed cases in a European non-athlete population.

The disease develops after repeated blows to the head and can cause mood swings, aggression, memory loss and movement problems.

It can only be confirmed after death by testing for a distinctive build-up of a brain protein called tau.

Researchers from Semmelweis University in Budapest, Hungary, the University of Toronto and Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, examined 34 post-mortem brains from adults aged 41–67, mostly men.

Four brains showed evidence of CTE while two more displayed closely related damage – findings not previously seen in people with no background in contact sport or military service.

Dr Krisztina Danics is assistant professor at Semmelweis University’s department of pathology, forensic and insurance medicine.

The researcher said: “Our focus here was to explore pathological brain changes in a very vulnerable, overlooked group expecting to find early forms of more common conditions such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

“It was a surprise to discover CTE in people with no elite sport or military background.

“This supports the notion that repeated head impacts can add up over a lifetime – even outside stadiums.”