We don’t know a lot about common mental disorders of professional footballers, there are few research and scientific information (Gouttebarge and Aoki, 2014).
A recent study published in Journal of Sport Science and Medicine by Gouttebarge, Back, Aoki and Kerkhoffs (Journal of Sports Science and Medicine, 2015, 14, 811-818) investigated symptoms related to distress, anxiety/depression or substance abuse/dependence, typically referred as symptoms of common mental disorders (CMD).
The aims of this study were “to determine the prevalence of symptoms related to CMD (distress, anxiety/depression, sleeping disturbance, adverse alcohol behaviour, adverse nutrition behaviour) in professional footballers from five European countries and to explore associations of the outcome measures under study with life events and career dissatisfaction among professional footballers.”
In this study were selected 540 professional footballers from five European countries (Finland, France, Norway, Spain and Sweden) and the method used was an electronic questionnaire.
The symptoms considered by authors were: distress, anxiety/depression, sleeping disturbance, adverse alcohol behavior, adverse nutrition behavior. Stressors like Life events and Career dissatisfaction were also considerate by authors, The results says that “the highest prevalence rates of symptoms related to CMD were:
- 18% (Sweden) for distress
- 43% (Norway) for anxiety/depression
- 33% (Spain) for sleeping disturbance
- 17% (Finland) for adverse alcohol behavior
- 74% (Norway) for adverse nutrition behavior
This study also emphasized that “in Finland, France and Sweden, both life events and career dissatisfaction were associated with distress, anxiety/depression, adverse alcohol behaviour, and adverse nutrition behavior.”
In conclusion, this study is very important and should be supported more with new studies in other countries considering the number of football players in the world involved. Other studies revealed that symptoms related to CMD were as prevalent as in other populations, ranging from 10% for distress to 19% for adverse alcohol use, and 26% for anxiety/depression (Gouttebarge et al., 2015).
(Review by Emiliano Bernardi from Sports Science and Medicine, 2015, 14, 811-818, http://www.jssm.org)
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