Boston University: Study Finds CTE in More Than 40% of Athlete Deaths Under Age of 30

A study conducted by the Boston University CTE Center determined more than 40 percent of youth, high school and college contact sport athletes who suffered repetitive head trauma and died before the age of 30 were suffering from CTE.

"The fact that over 40 percent of young contact and collision sport athletes in the UNITE brain bank have CTE is remarkable, considering that studies of community brain banks show that fewer than 1 percent of the general population has CTE," Dr. Ann McKee said in a statement, per ESPN.

The vast majority of the 152 brains examined for this study were former football players. Others played ice hockey and soccer.

The study also included the first American woman, a 28-year-old soccer player, to be diagnosed with CTE.

The donors died between the ages of 13 and 29, with suicide being the most common cause of death. Suicidal thoughts are a common symptom of CTE, a degenerative brain disease caused by repetitive head trauma. It can only be diagnosed posthumously and has been found at alarming rates among football players.

Mental health symptoms like depression and apathy were found in nearly 70 percent of the people studied.

Boston University noted "not all contact sport athletes with symptoms have CTE" and that having CTE did not have an impact on the cause of death in the study.