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Traumatic Brain Injury, Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, and Alzheimer's Disease: Overlapping Phenotypes and Associations
Bender ES, Katramadou A, Kanakis D.. Preprints.org, 2026-09-14
Topic: Brain imaging, connectivity and assessment
Traumatic brain injury (TBI), chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), and Alzheimer's disease (AD) share several neuropathophysiological mechanisms, including axonal injury, neuroinflammation, and abnormal protein aggregation, which may contribute to overlapping clinical manifestations. This review compares the clinical phenotypes of TBI, CTE, and AD across somatic and sensory, motor, cognitive, and neuropsychiatric domains to identify shared and distinguishing characteristics. Common manifestations include memory and attention deficits, executive dysfunction, slowed information processing, gait and balance impairment, depression, anxiety, irritability, apathy, and personality changes. Despite these similarities, important differences were identified. TBI presents acutely following injury and is associated with headache, vestibular disturbances, loss of consciousness, and post-traumatic amnesia. CTE typically develops years after repetitive head trauma and initially manifests with mood and behavioural disturbances, followed by progressive cognitive decline and dementia in advanced stages. AD is characterized by progressive episodic memory impairment, followed by language, visuospatial, executive, and functional decline. The overlap in clinical presentation, particularly between CTE and AD, may complicate differential diagnosis. Careful assessment of symptom onset, disease progression, injury history, neuropsychological findings, neuroimaging, and biomarkers is essential for accurate diagnosis and may improve early recognition and clinical management.
Key findings
- TBI presents acutely following injury and is associated with headache, vestibular disturbances, loss of consciousness, and post-traumatic amnesia.
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Study details
- Evidence strengthLow
How this study scored 16/100
Preprint — not yet peer-reviewed. It scored 21 on the same rubric, but non-peer-reviewed sources are capped at 16, so it shows as 16. Scored zero for study design, sample size, effect reported, studied in people and randomised / blinded because the record does not state it. We have no data on times cited, citations per year, impact for its field and year, cited by studies here, still being cited, senior author's track record, institution's track record and multi-centre collaboration, so those were left out: it earned 13 of the 62 points we could judge it on, which is 21 out of 100.
| Component | Points | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Journal tier | 2 / 10 | Tier 4 — not a peer-reviewed journal (Preprints.org) |
| Journal's citation record | 0 / 4 | Not a journal article, so the journal's record does not count |
| Study design | 0 / 12 | No study design recorded — scores zero, not guessed (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Strength of evidence | 1 / 5 | Rated “low” in our summary |
| Peer-review validation | 4 / 10 | Preprint — not yet peer-reviewed. Hosted on a preprint server. |
| How recent | 5 / 5 | 2026 — within 1 year(s) of the newest study here |
| Sample size | 0 / 4 | Participant count not stated — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Effect reported | 0 / 3 | No effect size reported — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Studied in people | 0 / 3 | Not stated whether this was studied in people — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Randomised / blinded | 0 / 2 | No randomisation or blinding stated — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Times cited | — / 7 | No citation count (not found in OpenAlex) — left out of this score |
| Citations per year | — / 5 | No citation count or no year — left out of this score |
| Impact for its field and year | — / 6 | No field-weighted citation impact (OpenAlex has none yet) — left out of this score |
| Cited by studies here | — / 6 | Not yet checked against this library's citation graph — left out of this score |
| Still being cited | — / 4 | No yearly citation counts — left out of this score |
| Senior author's track record | — / 4 | Senior author's record not available — left out of this score |
| Institution's track record | — / 3 | No institution listed in OpenAlex — left out of this score |
| Multi-centre collaboration | — / 3 | Institutions not listed — left out of this score |
| Indexed in PubMed | 1 / 2 | Not in PubMed, but has a DOI |
| Free to read | 0 / 2 | Behind a paywall — scores zero |
| Points | 13 / 62 | Scored on 12 of 20 parts. We have no data for the rest, so they are left out: 13 of the 62 points we could judge it on is 21 out of 100. |
| Total | 21 / 100 | Capped to 16 because this is not a peer-reviewed article. |
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Cite this study APA, Vancouver, BibTeX · download .bib or .ris
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APA 7th
Bender, E. S., Katramadou, A., & Kanakis, D. (2026). Traumatic Brain Injury, Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, and Alzheimer's Disease: Overlapping Phenotypes and Associations. Preprints.org. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202609.1045.v1
Vancouver
Bender ES, Katramadou A, Kanakis D. Traumatic Brain Injury, Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, and Alzheimer's Disease: Overlapping Phenotypes and Associations. Preprints.org. 2026. doi:10.20944/preprints202609.1045.v1.
BibTeX
@article{bender2026-bae6d0ca,
author = {Bender, E. S. and Katramadou, A. and Kanakis, D.},
title = {{Traumatic Brain Injury, Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, and Alzheimer's Disease: Overlapping Phenotypes and Associations}},
journal = {Preprints.org},
year = {2026},
doi = {10.20944/preprints202609.1045.v1},
url = {https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202609.1045.v1}
}
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