Suicide victim Junior Seau's memorial SAN DIEGO, CA MAY 11: A supporter looks up at a video board at a tribute to former NFL star Junior Seau during a public memorial at Qualcomm Stadium May 11, 2012 in San Diego, California. Seau, who played for various NFL teams including the San Diego Chargers, Miami Dolphins and New England Patriots, was found dead in his home on May 2, an apparent suicide. (Photo by Sandy Huffaker/Getty Images)

According to government research, NFL players are less likely to commit suicide than the average man in the general population.

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health performed research on over 3,000 retired players, and that research showed that NFL players were less likely to kill themselves than the general population. Their data also found that NFL players were more likely to live longer, but faced higher chances of dying from brain disorders such as Alzheimers.

The suicide report involved 3,439 former players and found 12 suicides during the study years from 1979 to 2013. Suicide rates in the general population suggest 25 suicides would have been expected for men of comparable age. The results will appear in the September print edition of the American Journal of Sports Medicine. They appeared in the online edition last week.

The data should be taken with a grain of salt as it didn’t examine concussion data and its link to CTE. The growing link between suicide and CTE has been discovered in multiple players post-mortem, including former Kansas City Chief Jovan Belcher and former San Diego Charger Junior Seau.

The researchers stress more studies need to be done to resolve the connection between CTE and suicide.

“The issue of football players being at higher risk of suicide than the general population has been raised in the popular and scientific literature,” Dr. Douglas Trout, deputy director of the Division of Surveillance, Hazard and Field Studies at the CDC’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, said in a media release.”

“Clearly, our one study does not resolve the issue of suicide in football,” the study’s conclusion says. “Before reliable conclusions can be drawn on any relationship among football play, concussion, CTE, and suicide, more work needs to be done in several areas.”

The data from the study will be published in the September print edition of the American Journal of Sports Medicine.

[ESPN]

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