Featured | Mount Sinai Today

A Routine Pre-Op Exam Uncovered a Silent Threat and Got One Beloved Professor Back to the Classroom

Updated on Sep 24, 2026 | Featured, Patient Stories

Karl Hoffman with his surgeon, John Phair, MD

For more than 45 years, Karl Hoffman has dedicated his life to education.

A lifelong New Yorker who was raised in the Bronx and now calls Queens home, he has spent decades shaping young minds—from serving as a science department chair at a local high school to his current role teaching criminology at St. John’s University in Queens. At 77 years old, he’s still doing what he loves most: inspiring students in the classroom.

But earlier this year, while preparing for a knee replacement surgery to relieve years of debilitating arthritis pain, he learned that another, far more serious health issue demanded immediate attention.

He had no symptoms, and so he had no idea that one of the arteries supplying blood to his brain was nearly blocked.

“I felt perfectly fine,” he says. “I was focused on getting my knee replaced so I could get back to walking comfortably again. I never imagined they would find something that could have caused a stroke.”

As part of the routine pre-operative evaluation before his orthopedic surgery with Edward C. Yang, MD, he underwent a vascular examination. The screening revealed a 90 percent blockage in his carotid artery—a potentially life-threatening condition that significantly increases the risk of stroke.

The blockage was caught before it caused a stroke, and the vascular surgery team at Mount Sinai Queens acted quickly. Within weeks, he underwent transcarotid artery revascularization (TCAR), a unique and minimally invasive procedure designed to restore blood flow to the brain while reducing the risk of stroke.

“One of the biggest challenges with carotid artery disease is that many patients have no symptoms until they experience a stroke,” says John Phair, MD, Associate Professor of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. “The routine pre-operative evaluation gave us the opportunity to detect the blockage early and treat it before it became a life-threatening emergency. TCAR allowed us to provide a less invasive treatment with a quicker recovery, helping him safely return to the life he enjoys.”

Mr. Hoffman underwent the procedure and was home the next day. Just one week later, he was back in the classroom.

“I couldn’t believe how quickly I recovered,” he says. “I was grateful to get back to my students and back to doing what I love.”

With the vascular procedure behind him, he went on to have his long-awaited knee replacement surgery. Once he recovers through physical therapy, he’s looking forward to returning to the activities arthritis had forced him to put on hold—from exploring museums and the New York Botanical Garden with his wife of 51 years to spending another semester in the classroom.

“Stories like Karl’s remind us why routine screenings are so important,” says Christopher Smolock, MD, Professor, Vascular Surgery and Radiology and Chief of Vascular Surgery, Mount Sinai Queens. “Advanced procedures like TCAR allow us to treat severe carotid artery disease before it leads to a stroke, and we’re proud to provide that level of specialized vascular care right here in Queens.”

For Mr. Hoffman, the surgical procedures mean he can focus on what comes next.

“You never know what a routine test might uncover,” he says. “I’m thankful the team found the blockage when they did. Because of them, I’m looking forward to getting back to my family, my students, and the life I love.”

At Mount Sinai Queens, patients have access to innovative vascular care close to home. From advanced diagnostic screenings to minimally invasive procedures like TCAR, our vascular surgery team is helping patients return to the lives they love with expert, compassionate care. To learn more or schedule a consultation with John Phair, MD, or Christopher Smolock, MD, contact Mount Sinai Queens Vascular Surgery at 718-808-7777 for Mount Sinai Doctors-Astoria and 718-520-6100 for Mount Sinai Doctors-Forest Hills.

What It’s Like to Participate in a Clinical Trial: One Cancer Patient Tells Her Story of Hope

Updated on Sep 24, 2026 | Featured, Patient Stories, Research

“It has been a game changer,” says Ellen Nissenbaum. “Before the trial, I had seen a major decline in my health over four years.”

It’s that time again. In less than two hours, Ellen Nissenbaum must leave her office in Washington, D.C., where she works for a nonpartisan research and policy institute. She needs to catch the train to New York. There’s the usual rush to finish everything she needs to do and pack up the work she’ll bring with her on the train.

She’s not going for a weekend of visiting friends or touring the town. She’s going to see her cancer doctor and learn whether the clinical trial of a new medicine is continuing to keep her blood cancer in check, and she’s feeling the best she has felt in years.

“When I first started making this trip two years ago, it was harried and tense,” she says. “Now it’s become a routine—and one I actually look forward to doing.”

In fact, she’s excited to see her doctor, John O. Mascarenhas, MD, Professor of Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Director of the Center of Excellence for Blood Cancers and Myeloid Disorders, and the team at the Mount Sinai Tisch Cancer Center.

“I haven’t seen him in a while, and I look forward to learning about an upcoming change in my treatment,” she says.

If all goes as planned this time, she’ll only need to come to New York for her myeloproliferative neoplasm treatment once a month. That will make her life much easier.

Myeloproliferative neoplasms are a group of rare blood cancers where the bone marrow makes too many red blood cells, white blood cells, or platelets. About 20,000 new cases are diagnosed in the United States each year. Mount Sinai Tisch Cancer Center in New York is widely recognized as a global leader in the research and treatment of myeloproliferative neoplasms.

These blood cancers generally develop after age 50. They are chronic conditions that people can manage and live with for a long time if treated properly. However, some of these conditions can be more aggressive and develop into acute leukemia.

On the train

The train ride gives Ms. Nissenbaum a chance to settle in. It’s quiet, and she can work as the train speeds through Maryland, Delaware, and New Jersey toward Penn Station in New York. Then, she will spend the night in a hotel in Manhattan and take the subway to The Mount Sinai Hospital the next morning for her infusion therapy.

“I’ve made this trip so many times that I feel completely comfortable with it now,” she says.

She believes the clinical trial is literally making the difference between life and death.

“It has been a game changer. Before the trial, I had seen a major decline in my health over four years,” she says. “Now, because of this treatment, I have been fortunate that my cancer hasn’t made me sick or limited my life. I’m especially looking forward to seeing my test results tomorrow.”

“Ellen is a pioneer in cancer research,” says her doctor, John O. Mascarenhas, MD.

She often gets the lab results before the medical team does through her Mount Sinai MyChart app on her phone.

“I love seeing that. The infusion is keeping my platelets at normal levels. That’s something I hadn’t seen in 25 years,” she says.

Participation in the trial also helps cover her hotel, transportation, and meals. Without that support, she says participating would be extremely difficult for her—and impossible for many others.

Fortunately, her doctor referred her to Dr. Mascarenhas, who is an expert in myeloproliferative neoplasms. She had been with Mount Sinai for a few years when Dr. Mascarenhas presented the opportunity to her, and they made a decision to pursue this trial based on her disease features and her personal goals.

“The trial comes with costs in many ways, but those are nothing compared with what I’ve gained from being part of it and from being cared for by this incredible team,” she says.

Ms. Nissenbaum was the first person enrolled in the trial at Mount Sinai. She takes pride in knowing that the team has learned a great deal from her participation, and she hopes that knowledge will benefit others.

“I tease Dr. Mascarenhas that I’m his ‘guinea pig,’” she says.

“Ellen is a pioneer in cancer research as she was one of the very first patients in the world to receive a first-in-human immunotherapeutic for her myeloproliferative neoplasm,” says Dr. Mascarenhas. “She approached this trial and her disease with courage and a desire to be an active participant in the process. I admire her. We have been thrilled by the clinical response and the hope for disease modification in a chronic progressive hematologic malignancy.”

The next day

“Early Thursday morning, I wake up in New York City and head to Mount Sinai, where I’m warmly greeted by the nurses who have had my back for two and a half years,” she says.

“When I first started, I was terrified of needles, and infusions were traumatic,” she says. “The nurses listened, understood, and found ways to make the experience tolerable. Their compassion changed everything for me.”

She’s probably sat in every chair in the infusion center, and she even has a few favorites. About once a month, she brings the staff homemade chocolate-chip banana bread.

“It feels like such a small gesture for everything they do, but they seem to love it,” she says.

A photo of Ellen Nissenbaum in the hospital.

“When I first started, I was terrified of needles, and infusions were traumatic,” says Ms. Nissenbaum. “The nurses listened, understood, and found ways to make the experience tolerable. Their compassion changed everything for me.”

Heading home

After a half day at Tisch Cancer Center, she is ready to head home to Washington. These days, she’s excited about the possibility of coming less often while still being closely monitored remotely.

“It’s wonderful news—and another reminder of how fortunate I am to be on this trial and to have this remarkable team beside me,” she says.

Ellen Nissenbaum is part of a phase 1 (NCT05936359) open-label multicenter study with Incyte Corporation of INCA033989 administered as monotherapy or in combination with ruxolitinib in participants with myeloproliferative neoplasms with John O. Mascarenhas, MD, Professor of Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Director of the Center of Excellence for Blood Cancers and Myeloid Disorders, and a member of Mount Sinai Tisch Cancer Center.

Mount Sinai offers cancer clinical trials for many cancer types and stages. Explore trials open for enrollment and learn how to find out if you may be eligible.

Largest Neuroimaging Study of Bulimia Nervosa Finds Structural Brain Differences Linked to Diagnosis and Binge-Eating Severity

Sep 22, 2026 | Featured, Psychiatry, Research

Cortical surface area and subcortical volume lower in individuals with bulimia nervosa compared with controls.

Researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai found that people with bulimia nervosa have structural differences in brain regions involved in reward and motivation, as well as social and sensory processing, and that more frequent binge eating is associated with more widespread differences in brain structure. Their findings were recently published in JAMA Psychiatry.

Bulimia nervosa is the second most common eating disorder in the world, characterized by recurrent binge eating and compensatory behaviors. Compared to other psychiatric illnesses, little is known about its neurobiology, and previous neuroimaging studies have generally included small numbers of participants and produced inconsistent findings.

“This study gives us the clearest evidence to date that bulimia nervosa is associated with reproducible differences in brain structure. We were surprised that the differences we identified in the brain’s outer layer involved a structural feature that is largely established early in development,” says Laura A. Berner, PhD, Director of the Center for Computational Psychiatry at Mount Sinai.

Laura A. Berner, PhD

Dr. Berner and colleagues from the global ENIGMA (Enhancing NeuroImaging Genetics through Meta-Analysis) consortium analyzed MRI brain scans from 369 females with bulimia nervosa and 417 females without an eating disorder across 17 international cohorts.

In comparison to people without an eating disorder, those with bulimia nervosa had lower volume of the nucleus accumbens – a brain region involved in processing reward and motivation. They also had lower surface area in regions of the temporal cortex – a brain area involved in sensory and social processing.

More frequent binge eating was associated with lower surface area in additional regions involved in cognitive control, reward value estimation, awareness of bodily signals, and processing and regulating emotions. In contrast, the frequency of compensatory behaviors—the measure currently used to define bulimia nervosa severity—was not associated with brain structure.

The findings suggest that specific symptoms, like binge eating, may have distinct neurobiological correlates. Because the study examined participants at a single point in time, longitudinal research is needed to determine whether these differences precede or follow illness onset.

“Our findings raise important questions about whether some of these brain differences could be markers of vulnerability to developing the illness. At the same time, the findings should not be interpreted to mean that the brain is fixed, or that a person’s outcome is predetermined,” says Dr. Berner. “We are excited about the next steps: understanding what these findings mean for the function of the affected brain circuits, and how these insights can ultimately help us identify better targets for prevention and treatment.”

Learn more about Mount Sinai's Center for Computational Psychiatry

The Pros and Cons of Daylight Saving Time for Your Health

Updated on Sep 17, 2026 | Featured, Your Health

Photo of a woman looking out the window with her coffee in the early morning

Every March, on the second Sunday, we turn the clocks ahead one hour to begin daylight saving time, which gives us one more hour of light during the evening when the weather is warmest. And every November, on the first Sunday, we turn the clocks back to resume permanent standard time.

The disruptions to sleep patterns and the collective grogginess in the week or so afterward are discomforts that we’ve gotten used to. But does it have to stay that way?

In this Q&A, Andrew Varga, MD, PhD, a neuroscientist and physician at the Mount Sinai Respiratory Institute Integrative Sleep Center, discusses the pros and cons of keeping the clocks set permanently at daylight savings time or permanent standard time.

“The bottom line is that we can’t change the amount of daylight we get,” he says. “But we, as a community, can decide when we want those hours of daylight to occur.”

Andrew W. Varga, MD, PhD

What are the health issues surrounding switching to daylight saving time?

Changing the clocks twice a year creates lots of problems, especially at the point of the time change. There are increased spikes and incidents of adverse health outcomes at those times of year in the spring and fall when we make the time change.

Twice a year, everyone is forced to make a dramatic adjustment in their circadian rhythm, which is your internal biological clock that governs key functions, such as your sleep/wake cycle, eating habits, digestion, and body temperature. It’s been documented that making the change has a number of adverse consequences, such as an increase in heart attacks and cardiovascular incidents at those times. And because people are sleepy, there’s a spike in the statistics in auto accidents, as well.

What are the alternatives?

It seems everybody is on the same page that we should stick with one thing, and not change it. But there are two camps—one is for making daylight saving time permanent, and the other is to stick with permanent standard time year-round.

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine believes we should stick with permanent standard time, which is what we observe in the fall and winter. They argue that permanent standard time is more in line with people’s natural circadian rhythms.

It’s worth remembering that we can’t change the amount of daylight in June or December, we can only decide where we want that light to be. The people who are proponents of permanent daylight saving time like the fact that in June you have light as late as 8:30 pm. If we were to change it to permanent standard time, you’d only have daylight until 7:30 pm. But you would gain it in the morning, so sunrise would be around 4:30 am instead of 5:30 am.

What would happen if we changed to permanent daylight saving time?

If we shifted to permanent daylight saving time in the winter, we would gain an hour of daylight in the afternoon but lose it in the morning. The sun would set at 5:30 pm instead of 4:30 pm, but it wouldn’t rise until 8:30 am. So most people would be getting up and commuting to work in the dark, and children would be going to school in the dark.

In addition, the further north you are, the more drastic the differences in the amount of light. For example, in Minnesota, the sun would rise about 20 minutes later than in New York City, at almost 9 am. In Miami, the sun would rise about a half hour earlier than New York—at about 8 am.

The United States did experiment during the energy crisis with switching to permanent daylight saving time. Congress passed the Emergency Daylight Saving Time Energy Conservation Act in December 1973, and at first, the public didn’t react that much. But as the consequences began to be felt over the course of the year, the public outcry was significant, and the law was repealed by the fall of 1974.

What is the argument for making standard time permanent?

Most medical authorities agree that sticking to standard time would be best from a health and safety standpoint. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine has released a position paper that says the twice-a-year time change “incurs significant public health and safety risks, including increased risk of adverse cardiovascular events, mood disorders, and motor vehicle crashes.” The paper makes an argument that standard time year-round would best align with human circadian rhythms. The time that we habitually wake up, go to bed, and do certain activities, such as commuting, is more in line with standard time.

It’s interesting to note that Arizona stays on permanent standard time and has done so since 1968. I’m not aware of any data that shows whether they are realizing any health benefits. However, they are routinely not included in national traffic accident statistics due to this fact.

Having trouble sleeping or have other medical concerns? Find a Mount Sinai primary care doctor who can help.

25 Years After 9/11, Mount Sinai Continues Its Commitment to Caring for First Responders and Safeguarding Public Health

Updated on Sep 16, 2026 | Community, Featured, School

A photo showing the September 11th "Tribute in Light" beacons shine up from lower Manhattan. New York City, NY/USA. September, 2015.

Like countless New Yorkers, Michael Crane, MD, MPH, has his own personal story about the morning of Tuesday, September 11, 2001.

A doctor and public health expert then working for Con Edison, he made his way to Ground Zero on that day. Over the next several weeks, he helped ensure that the company’s workers took proper precautions during the recovery operations. Like thousands of other responders, they were exposed to hazardous conditions, toxic agents, and extreme psychological stress.

As it turns out, safeguarding the health of workers who were at Ground Zero would continue to be a focus of his life and career 25 years later. Mount Sinai had been caring for 9/11 responders since 2001, and he went on to serve as Medical Director for the World Trade Center (WTC) Health Program Clinical Center of Excellence (CCE) at Mount Sinai after the federal WTC Health Program was formally established in 2011.

These days, Dr. Crane’s primary responsibility is overseeing Mount Sinai’s program, which monitors and cares for more than 27,000 first responders in the New York City area. Mount Sinai is the largest of eight Clinical Centers of Excellence that care for about 95,000 responders—firefighters, police, recovery, and cleanup workers and many others who participated in rescue and recovery efforts.

The other New York metropolitan area Centers of Excellence that serve responders are run by the State University of New York at Stony Brook, Rutgers University, Northwell Health, and the New York University Grossman School of Medicine, along with a Fire Department of New York center exclusively for New York City firefighters. These Centers were established to monitor, treat, and support rescue and recovery workers who responded on September 11 and in the following weeks and months.

A photo of Michael Crane, MD, MPH, Medical Director for the World Trade Center (WTC) Health Program Clinical Center of Excellence (CCE) at Mount Sinai.

“Unless we get as many responders as possible, we won’t know the full impact of what happened to these folks,” says Michael Crane, MD, MPH, Medical Director for the World Trade Center (WTC) Health Program Clinical Center of Excellence (CCE) at Mount Sinai. “We need all the data we can get. That’s the real goal when you have an exposure that is unknown.”

These Centers are part of the national WTC Health Program overseen by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The WTC Health Program is authorized and funded through 2090 under the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, signed into law in January 2011, and reauthorized by Congress in 2015. Mount Sinai’s World Trade Center Clinical Center of Excellence is located within the Mount Sinai Selikoff Centers for Occupational Health.

The WTC Health Program also oversees programs for survivors—those who lived, worked, or went to school in downtown Manhattan. There are now more than 145,000 people enrolled in the WTC Health Program, including about 57,000 survivors and 95,000 responders. The program also funds medical research into the physical and mental health conditions related to 9/11 exposures.

As the New York region marks another significant anniversary of the attacks, Dr. Crane says Mount Sinai’s Clinical Center of Excellence continues to see new members and encourages other responders who may not yet have sought care to enroll in the program. Staff at Mount Sinai’s Center are available to assist with enrollment in the WTC Health Program.

In this way, Mount Sinai and the other Centers are building on the lessons of public health, which is to follow the lead of those on the ground in identifying possible concerns, gather data, provide care, and use research to understand the results, all while demonstrating a commitment to safeguarding the public and building trust and confidence in the communities affected.

Still, Dr. Crane says he hopes more responders will decide to participate in the program.

“Unless we get as many responders as possible, we won’t know the full impact of what happened to these folks,” says Dr. Crane, who is also a Professor in the Department of Environmental Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. “We need all the data we can get. That’s the real goal when you have an exposure that is unknown.”

From the beginning, Dr. Crane and other health care experts knew there would likely be long-term respiratory troubles for first responders. A compounding factor would be the heroic efforts of first responders, many of whom would not stop working at the site even when they worried about possible medical issues.

One of the most striking initial symptoms among these responders was “a thunderous cough that would not stop,” which came to be known as the WTC cough.

“I had never heard anything like it,” he says. “It was a sign of healthy people having trouble clearing out their airways, and some of them getting quite distressed.”

In their monitoring of both first responders and survivors, public health officials continue to see respiratory conditions, specifically chronic rhinosinusitis (an inflammation of the sinuses), and asthma, among the top five conditions. Other leading conditions include gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), cancer, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). To address these and other mental health concerns, the WTC Health Program provides mental health services to eligible members.

Of note, cancer has become an increasingly important part of the program’s work, with more than 25,000 responders and 27,000 survivors nationwide being diagnosed with cancer, according to the program. Some of the most frequently covered cancer conditions treated by the program include non-melanoma skin cancer, prostate cancer, breast cancer, melanoma, and lymphoma.

The WTC Health Program covers yearly monitoring for those enrolled and treatment. Regular monitoring is important because many of these conditions may develop years after exposure, experts say. It’s also important to build relationships with clinicians who can track these patients over time and to ensure there are no obstacles to care that might discourage regular monitoring.

Another critical element of the WTC Health Program is that it generates data that has been the basis of publications by researchers. Recent findings by the Mount Sinai team indicates PTSD may accelerate brain aging in 9/11 responders, and that harmful substances, contaminated environments, and hazardous materials may contribute to conditions such as PTSD, GERD, respiratory disorders, diabetes, and chronic headaches.

For those who seek out monitoring and care, the prognosis can be promising, even for those facing more complex conditions and cancers. This care has included lung transplants, according to Dr. Crane.

“If you come to the program, I am optimistic that you will find the best care available anywhere. We will strive to optimize your lifespan and optimize the joy that you have in that life while you’re living it,” he says. He hopes doctors will continue to refer patients to the WTC Health Program.

In fact, multiple studies show the value of this ongoing treatment. For example, a study of more than 28,000 responders found that those enrolled in the WTC Health Program had a 13 percent lower risk of death. The study was published in the Annals of Epidemiology in March 2026.

Dr. Crane also expresses concern for the group of survivors who lived in downtown Manhattan and returned to live there in the weeks and months after the attacks. Health authorities believe this group of people may be as large as 400,000, and the effects of longer-term exposure to lower levels of environmental hazards that come from living many years downtown with the residual environmental effects are not known, according to Dr. Crane.

The World Trade Center Environmental Health Center at NYC Health + Hospitals and the William Street Clinic assess and treat these survivors, which includes residents, students, workers, or passersby who may be sick from 9/11-exposures.

Dr. Crane says those who lived in lower Manhattan during this period should consider applying to the WTC Health Program and get their 9/11-related symptoms monitored. He hopes increased participation in the program will help public health authorities expand the data they are now collecting on possible longer term health effects, especially for young children who were exposed for longer periods while they were growing up and their bodies were developing.

“The pollution from the collapse of the buildings was significant,” Dr. Crane says. “It’s an ongoing concern for all of us in the program given what we are seeing with the responders. These folks who lived in the community may have had somewhat lower-level but longer-duration exposure. We’re especially concerned about those young people whose bodies were changing in the presence of toxins.”

During the early years, survivor enrollment in the program had lagged significantly behind the responder enrollment, but this has been changing over the last decade. Survivors now represent more than 39 percent of the total number of program participants. Experts believe this is probably the result of greater awareness of the program, and the delayed onset of some medical conditions. About 59,000 participants are survivors, compared with about 95,000 responders.

“We hope that people will join and participate because we think there may be problems there,” Dr. Crane says. “Quite frankly, we don’t even know what they are.”

About the World Trade Center Health Program

The WTC Health Program is a limited federal health care program that provides health care for certified WTC-related health conditions at no out-of-pocket cost to those directly affected by the September 11 attacks in New York, at the Pentagon, and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The program was established by the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2010. It is administered by the National Institute for Occupational Health and Safety (NIOSH) part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. To learn more about the WTC Health Program, click here.

Learn more about the World Trade Center Health Program

Worried About CTE? What to Know About Risk, Symptoms, and Diagnosis

Updated on Sep 15, 2026 | Featured, Neurology, Your Health

A football player in a red helmet looks down the field at a fellow player, who is blurred in the background

You may have heard about chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a brain disease linked to repeated hits to the head. CTE has been found in some former NFL players and others who had repeated head impacts.

If you or a family member played contact sports, you may wonder about the risk of CTE. The risk depends in part on how often and for how long a person experienced repeated head impacts. Even people with extensive exposure do not always develop CTE.

In this Q&A, Kristen Dams-O’Connor, PhD, Director of the Brain Injury Research Center of Mount Sinai, explains what researchers know about CTE, what may affect your risk, and what you can do if you are concerned.

Kristen Dams-O’Connor, PhD

How do I know if I’m at risk for CTE?

The biggest known risk factor for CTE is extensive exposure to repeated hits to the head over a long period of time. Researchers call these repetitive head impacts.

American football is the best-studied example. Repeated head impacts can also happen in other contact sports, including soccer, and possibly during military service or from domestic violence.

In football, the risk appears to increase based on how many years a person played, the level at which they played, and their position. For example, someone who played football briefly as a child or teenager would have a very different level of exposure than an NFL player who experienced repeated impacts for many years. If someone played in a position that exposed them to more impact, like a lineman, that may also carry greater risk.

Just because someone experiences repetitive head impacts does not mean they will get CTE. In fact, most people who have played football never develop CTE, and it isn’t clear yet why some do but others don’t.

Can one concussion cause CTE?

Current evidence does not suggest that one traumatic brain injury, whether it’s a mild concussion or more severe traumatic brain injury, puts you at significant risk for CTE. Researchers have found very few cases of CTE in people whose only known exposure was a single traumatic brain injury. The concern is greater when a person has repeated head impacts over time. These impacts do not have to cause diagnosed concussions, it is the extent and duration of repetitive head impacts that seems to matter most.

Can I be tested for CTE?

There is currently no test that can definitively diagnose CTE while a person is alive. CTE can only be diagnosed by examining brain tissue under a microscope after death.

Researchers are studying ways to diagnose CTE during life. These include blood tests that may detect signs of disease and specialized brain imaging. These tools are still being studied and cannot currently diagnose CTE in patients.

What symptoms should I be concerned about?

People who were found to have CTE after death have experienced symptoms such as:

memory changes
acting without thinking
irritability
trouble controlling emotions
poor decision-making
problems with planning, organizing, and completing tasks

Having these symptoms does not mean you have CTE. They are common after traumatic brain injuries and can also occur with dementia and many other conditions. At this time, researchers cannot tell from symptoms alone whether a person has the brain changes associated with CTE.

Substance use, including alcohol and drug use, can also contribute to symptoms during life, and may also contribute to the deaths of some people who are later diagnosed with CTE. But these concerns should not automatically be attributed to CTE, and many can be treated.

What can I do if I’m worried about CTE?

First, do not assume you have CTE. Problems such as memory difficulties, emotional changes, depression, or trouble controlling anger may have other causes, and some can be treated effectively. Also, fearing you have CTE may cause psychological problems. For example, research has found that some people who fear they have CTE experience depression and even suicidal thoughts and behaviors. Instead, focus on getting treatment for the symptoms you are experiencing rather than assuming CTE is causing them.

Behavioral and psychological treatments may help with some symptoms. For example, the Brain Injury Research Center of Mount Sinai offers neuropsychology and brain injury rehabilitation services that can help patients manage problems with thinking, memory, emotions, and behavior. Treatment may include psychotherapy, cognitive rehabilitation, and learning strategies for managing emotions. Medications may also be appropriate for certain symptoms.

Learn about the Brain Injury Research Center of Mount Sinai

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