TY - JOUR
T1 - Mental health management of elite athletes during COVID-19: A narrative review and recommendations
AU - Reardon, Claudia L.
AU - Bindra, Abhinav
AU - Blauwet, Cheri
AU - Budgett, Richard
AU - Campriani, Niccolo
AU - Currie, Alan
AU - Gouttebarge, Vincent
AU - McDuff, David
AU - Mountjoy, Margo
AU - Purcell, Rosemary
AU - Putukian, Margot
AU - Rice, Simon
AU - Hainline, Brian
PY - 2020
Y1 - 2020
N2 - Elite athletes suffer many mental health symptoms and disorders at rates equivalent to or exceeding those of the general population. COVID-19 has created new strains on elite athletes, thus potentially increasing their vulnerability to mental health symptoms. This manuscript serves as a narrative review of the impact of the pandemic on management of those symptoms in elite athletes and ensuing recommendations to guide that management. It specifically addresses psychotherapy, pharmacotherapy and higher levels of care. Within the realm of psychotherapy, crisis counselling might be indicated. Individual, couple/family and group psychotherapy modalities all may be helpful during the pandemic, with novel content and means of delivery. Regarding pharmacotherapy for mental health symptoms and disorders, some important aspects of management have changed during the pandemic, particularly for certain classes of medication including stimulants, medications for bipolar and psychotic disorders, antidepressants and medications for substance use disorders. Providers must consider when in-person management (eg, for physical examination, laboratory testing) or higher levels of care (eg, for crisis stabilisation) is necessary, despite potential risk of viral exposure during the pandemic. Management ultimately should continue to follow general principles of quality health care with some flexibility. Finally, the current pandemic provides an important opportunity for research on new methods of providing mental health care for athletes, and consideration for whether these new methods should extend beyond the pandemic.
AB - Elite athletes suffer many mental health symptoms and disorders at rates equivalent to or exceeding those of the general population. COVID-19 has created new strains on elite athletes, thus potentially increasing their vulnerability to mental health symptoms. This manuscript serves as a narrative review of the impact of the pandemic on management of those symptoms in elite athletes and ensuing recommendations to guide that management. It specifically addresses psychotherapy, pharmacotherapy and higher levels of care. Within the realm of psychotherapy, crisis counselling might be indicated. Individual, couple/family and group psychotherapy modalities all may be helpful during the pandemic, with novel content and means of delivery. Regarding pharmacotherapy for mental health symptoms and disorders, some important aspects of management have changed during the pandemic, particularly for certain classes of medication including stimulants, medications for bipolar and psychotic disorders, antidepressants and medications for substance use disorders. Providers must consider when in-person management (eg, for physical examination, laboratory testing) or higher levels of care (eg, for crisis stabilisation) is necessary, despite potential risk of viral exposure during the pandemic. Management ultimately should continue to follow general principles of quality health care with some flexibility. Finally, the current pandemic provides an important opportunity for research on new methods of providing mental health care for athletes, and consideration for whether these new methods should extend beyond the pandemic.
KW - athlete
KW - mental
KW - psychiatry
KW - psychology
KW - treatment
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85092241216&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?partnerID=HzOxMe3b&scp=85092241216&origin=inward
UR - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32967853
U2 - https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2020-102884
DO - https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2020-102884
M3 - Review article
C2 - 32967853
SN - 0306-3674
JO - British journal of sports medicine
JF - British journal of sports medicine
M1 - 102884
ER -