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T.J. Abraham was an ob-gyn for the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center until three years ago. But he began to feel he was losing his mental sharpness. Abraham's happy personality was changing, too. During a lengthy medical journey, he was told he may be bipolar or have a brain tumor or a personality disorder or CTE. Sacha Pfeiffer/NPR hide caption
T.J. Abraham was an ob-gyn for the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center until three years ago. But he began to feel he was losing his mental sharpness. Abraham's happy personality was changing, too. During a lengthy medical journey, he was told he may be bipolar or have a brain tumor or a personality disorder or CTE.
Sacha Pfeiffer/NPRCTE — chronic traumatic encephalopathy — is a degenerative brain disease found in many former professional football and hockey players, for whom blows to the head have long been part of the job.
But those injuries also occur outside the world of pro sports. And as awareness of CTE has grown, so has a thriving market of dubious remedies marketed to everyday people who believe they are suffering from CTE — a disease that can't even be diagnosed until after death, through an autopsy of the brain.
In the second of two episodes, Sacha Pfeiffer of NPR's Investigative Team reports on some of those desperate patients and their hope for a cure.
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This episode was produced by Brent Baughman, Meg Anderson, Barbara Van Woerkom, and Monika Evstatieva. It was edited by Barrie Hardymon, Bruce Auster, Fatma Tanis, and Ashley Brown. Our executive producer is Cara Tallo.
