Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy Neuropathologic Change Is Not Associated With Suicide in Former Athletes

Abstract

ABSTRACTThere are important knowledge gaps and misunderstandings relating to chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). A systematic review and meta‐analysis, published in April of 2025, was designed to examine the prevalence, risk factors, and potential outcomes of CTE neuropathologic change (CTE‐NC) in former athletes and concluded that suicide was a potential outcome of CTE‐NC (Qi et al., Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports. 2025;35(4):e70047). The review included eight eligible postmortem studies, four of which were used to estimate a possible association between the postmortem neuropathology and suicide as a manner of death. The authors of two of those four studies did not report a statistically significant association between suicide as the manner of death and having CTE‐NC identified in brain tissue. In the largest of the four studies, the brain donors with CTE‐NC were statistically significantly less likely to have suicide as their manner of death than donors who did not have CTE‐NC. Considering the four studies included in the systematic review, other studies of CTE‐NC not included in the review, and the broader literature relating to suicidality in former athletes, the best available evidence suggests that CTE‐NC is not associated with depression, suicidality, or suicide.