Neuropsychological deficits in active licensed professional boxers

Abstract

Young, active, licensed professional boxers (N = 19) were found to display a pattern of neuropsychological deficits consistent with the more severe punch‐drunk syndrome of years past. These deficits resulted in significantly lower test performance than that of control athletes (N = 10) matched for race, age, and level of education. Tests that showed significant differences between groups include subtests of the Quick Neurological Screening Test, subtests of the Halstead‐Reitan Neuropsychological Test Battery, and the Randt Memory Test. Fifteen of the 19 boxers scored in the impaired range of the Reitan Impairment Index, as compared to 2 of the 10 controls.

Neuropsychological investigation of amateur boxers.

“…However, both Murelius and Haglund24 and Thomassen et al 23 found a slightly slower finger motor function of the non-dominant hand particularly with boxers having a high number of bouts. Interestingly Drew et al 15 found a similar result with professional boxers. Murelius and Haglund24 however make it clear that despite the slight difference, the boxers' performance on this task was 'well within normal range'.…”

The neuropsychological impact of sports-related concussion: A meta-analysis

“…The overall effect (d ) of "exposure" as measured by examining the correlation between length of participation and neuropsychological functioning was .71 ( p , .05) based on four effect-size estimates, Q (3) 5 32, p , .05. In these studies, exposure was determined by number of boxing bouts and0or length of career (Drew et al, 1986;Murelius & Haglund, 1991), or frequency of heading in soccer (Abreau et al, 2000;Downs & Abwender, 2002). As there were so few of these correlational studies, they were not examined any further.…”

The risk of chronic traumatic brain injury in professional boxing: change in exposure variables over the past century

“…19 This suggests a consistency of exposure variables, permitting future comparison and use of Australian figures in determining prevalence rates of chronic boxing related brain injury. Unfortunately, similar demographic data are not available from the United Kingdom.…”