UNC interim chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz has long been viewed as one of the leading concussion researchers in the world in recent years. But a report published in The Athletic this week claimed that for years UNC student-athletes, particularly football players, were testing positive for ADHD at abnormally high rates – which the report claims could have tainted some concussion research for failing to disclose that information in research journals.
The Athletic published the article on Tuesday after what the sports-journalism website said was a months-long investigation. But Guskiewicz responded on Thursday in a statement posted to the website for the Matthew Gfeller Sport-Related Traumatic Brain Injury Research Center at UNC.
“I stand by our concussion research 100 percent. The allegations about our research are baseless, without scientific merit and completely false,” Guskiewicz said in the statement. He said research protocols at UNC go through “a robust internal review process, and in most cases an additional external grant review process.”
The statement goes on to say that every medical journal “has its own disclosure policies; we have always fully complied with those guidelines.”
Under a section labeled “Key Points,” the website post also targets a main source of The Athletics article – Ted Tatos – a researcher at the University of Utah. The post said “no recognized scientific journal has published” a study from Tatos and another researcher that The Athletic draws on in its post.
The Athletic also has drawn some criticism for not disclosing that Tatos operated a Twitter account under the name Bluedevilicious that often targeted UNC in the wake of the academic scandal.
The center is still conducting traumatic brain injury research and was recently awarded – along with Harvard Medical School, Boston Children’s Hospital, and the Medical College of Wisconsin – a grant from the NFL to further research CTE, or Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, which has been a growing concern among retired football players.
