Dementia Pugilistica

Dementia pugilistica (DP) is a neurodegenerative disease or dementia that may affect amateur or professional boxers as well as athletes in other sports who suffer concussions. A variant of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) it is also called chronic boxer's encephalopathy, traumatic boxer’s encephalopathy, boxer's dementia, chronic traumatic brain injury associated with boxing (CTBI-B), and punch-drunk syndrome ("punchy"). Symptoms and signs of DP develop progressively over a long latent period sometimes amounting to decades, with the average time of onset being about 12 to 16 years after the start of a career in boxing. The condition is thought to affect around 15% to 20% of professional boxers.

The condition is caused by repeated concussive and sub-concussive blows (blows that are below the threshold of force necessary to cause concussion), or both. Because of the concern that boxing may cause DP, there is a movement among medical professionals to ban the sport. Medical professionals have called for such a ban since as early as the 1950s.

The word pugilistica comes from the Latin root pugil, for boxer.

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