CONTROLLED PROSPECTIVE NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT OF ACTIVE EXPERIENCED AMATEUR BOXERS

Objective: To use a practical battery of eight neuropsychological test s for the detection of an association between amateur boxing and chron ic traumatic encephalopathy. Design: A controlled prospective neuropsy chological study over a 15-18-month period. Setting: Dublin, Ireland. March 1992 to September 1993. Participants: Twenty experienced activel y competing amateur boxers and 20 controls matched for age and socioec onomic status. Interventions: Participation in competitive amateur box ing and training. Main outcome measures: Absolute scores, and changes in scores, in the neuropsychological tests. Results: At the end of the study period, the boxers performed significantly better then the cont rols in both the Trail-Making Tests A and B (TMT-A, TMT-B), whereas th e control group's scores for the Finger Tapping Tests (FTT) were signi ficantly higher than those of the boxers. The boxer's scores for the d ominant-hand FTT showed a significant deterioration, but there was no association between this change and boxing exposure. Conclusions: Ther e was no evidence of neuropsychological impairment in the boxers as co mpared with socioeconomically, educationally and age-matched controls, and there was no association between boxing exposure and performances in any of the neuropsychological tests used. There is accumulating ev idence that amateur boxing is not associated with chronic traumatic en cephalopathy but longer term prospective studies are needed.