While these findings may seem disturbing, it's important to look at them with some caveats. This study is the first to analyze brains in a brain bank for signs of CTE, and it's one of the first to determine the presence of the disorder using the guidelines established by the NIH—guidelines that are likely to shift as more studies are done on similar brain banks. The sample size is also quite small, as Bloomberg News points out, especially if it's supposed to be representative of the overall population as the researchers claim. Also, the researchers note that some of the patients included in their study suffered from dementia; while CTE often appears with other neurodegenerative conditions, the diseases may play a role in each other's development, muddying the specific effects of CTE.