Mental health in elite athletes: International Olympic Committee consensus statement (2019)

Claudia L Reardon; Brian Hainline; Cindy Miller Aron; David Baron; Antonia L Baum; Abhinav Bindra; Richard Budgett; Niccolo Campriani; João Mauricio Castaldelli-Maia; Alan Currie; Jeffrey Lee Derevensky; Ira D Glick; Paul Gorczynski; Vincent Gouttebarge; Michael A Grandner; Doug Hyun Han; David McDuff; Margo Mountjoy; Aslihan Polat; Rosemary Purcell; Margot Putukian; Simon Rice; Allen Sills; Todd Stull; Leslie Swartz; Li Jing Zhu; Lars Engebretsen

doi:10.1136/bjsports-2019-100715

Mental health in elite athletes: International Olympic Committee consensus statement (2019)

Br J Sports Med. 2019 Jun;53(11):667-699. doi: 10.1136/bjsports-2019-100715.

Authors

Claudia L Reardon¹, Brian Hainline², Cindy Miller Aron³, David Baron⁴, Antonia L Baum⁵, Abhinav Bindra⁶, Richard Budgett⁷, Niccolo Campriani⁸, João Mauricio Castaldelli-Maia^{9

10}, Alan Currie^{11

12}, Jeffrey Lee Derevensky¹³, Ira D Glick¹⁴, Paul Gorczynski¹⁵, Vincent Gouttebarge^{16

17}, Michael A Grandner¹⁸, Doug Hyun Han¹⁹, David McDuff²⁰, Margo Mountjoy^{21

22}, Aslihan Polat^{23

24}, Rosemary Purcell^{25

26}, Margot Putukian^{27

28}, Simon Rice^{29

30}, Allen Sills^{31

32}, Todd Stull³³, Leslie Swartz³⁴, Li Jing Zhu^{35

36}, Lars Engebretsen^{37

38}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychiatry, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, Wisconsin, USA clreardon@wisc.edu.
² National Collegiate Athletic Association, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA.
³ Department of Psychiatry, Samaritan Health Services, Corvallis, Oregon, USA.
⁴ Office of the President, Western University of Health Sciences, Pomona, California, USA.
⁵ Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Washington, District of Columbia, USA.
⁶ Mohali, Punjab, India.
⁷ Medical and Scientific Department, International Olympic Committee, Lausanne, Switzerland.
⁸ Sports Department, International Olympic Committee, Lausanne, Switzerland.
⁹ Department of Neuroscience, Faculdade de Medicina do ABC, Santo Andre, Brazil.
¹⁰ Universidade de Sao Paulo Faculdade de Medicina Hospital das Clinicas Instituto de Psiquiatria, Sao Paulo, Brazil.
¹¹ Regional Affective Disorders Service, Northumberland Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust, Newcastle, UK.
¹² Department of Sport and Exercise Sciences, The University Of Sunderland, Sunderland, UK.
¹³ International Centre for Youth Gambling Problems and High Risk Behaviors, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
¹⁴ Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California, USA.
¹⁵ Department of Sport and Exercise Science, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, Hampshire, UK.
¹⁶ Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Amsterdam UMC, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam Movement Sciences, Meibergdreef 9, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
¹⁷ Amsterdam Collaboration on Health and Safety in Sports (ACHSS), AMC/VUmc IOC Research Centre of Excellence, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
¹⁸ Department of Psychiatry, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, USA.
¹⁹ Department of Psychiatry, Chung Ang University Hospital, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
²⁰ Department of Psychiatry, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
²¹ Department of Family Medicine-Sport, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
²² FINA Bureau Liaison to Sport Medicine, Lausanne, Switzerland.
²³ Department of Psychiatry, Kocaeli University, Faculty of Medicine, Kocaeli, Turkey.
²⁴ Kocaeli University, Community Mental Health Centre, Kocaeli, Turkey.
²⁵ Research and Translation, Orygen, The National Centre of Excellence in Youth Mental Health, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
²⁶ Centre for Youth Mental Health, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
²⁷ Athletic Medicine, University Health Services, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, USA.
²⁸ Department of Medicine, Rutgers-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA.
²⁹ Department of Research and Translation, Orygen, The National Centre of Excellence in Youth Mental Health, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
³⁰ Centre for Youth Mental Health, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
³¹ National Football League, New York, New York, USA.
³² Department of Neurological Surgery, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, USA.
³³ Athletic Department, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska, USA.
³⁴ Department of Psychology, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, Western Cape, South Africa.
³⁵ Social Sport, Zheng Zhou University, Zheng Zhou, He Nan Province, China.
³⁶ Social Aesthetic and Mental Health Institute, Vienna Sigmund Freud University, Vienna, Austria.
³⁷ Orthopaedic Clinic, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
³⁸ Medical Sciences, International Olympic Committee, Lausanne, Switzerland.

PMID: 31097450
DOI: 10.1136/bjsports-2019-100715

Abstract

Mental health symptoms and disorders are common among elite athletes, may have sport related manifestations within this population and impair performance. Mental health cannot be separated from physical health, as evidenced by mental health symptoms and disorders increasing the risk of physical injury and delaying subsequent recovery. There are no evidence or consensus based guidelines for diagnosis and management of mental health symptoms and disorders in elite athletes. Diagnosis must differentiate character traits particular to elite athletes from psychosocial maladaptations.Management strategies should address all contributors to mental health symptoms and consider biopsychosocial factors relevant to athletes to maximise benefit and minimise harm. Management must involve both treatment of affected individual athletes and optimising environments in which all elite athletes train and compete. To advance a more standardised, evidence based approach to mental health symptoms and disorders in elite athletes, an International Olympic Committee Consensus Work Group critically evaluated the current state of science and provided recommendations.

Keywords: consensus statement; elite performance; mental; psychiatry; psychology.

MeSH terms

Athletes / psychology*
Consensus
Humans
Mental Disorders / epidemiology*
Mental Disorders / therapy*
Mental Health*
Sports Medicine