Mental Health and Sport Performance Programming in Athletes Who Present Without Pathology: A Case Examination Supporting Optimization

Abstract

Athletes are exposed to unique stressors that often negatively impact the way they think, behave, and feel in athletic, academic, and social domains. The Optimum Performance Program in Sports (TOPPS), an adaptation of Family Behavior Therapy, is an innovative approach to optimization science that has demonstrated positive outcomes in student-athletes evidencing substance use disorders. However, this approach has yet to be evaluated in athletes who are interested in optimizing their mental health and sport performance, but have no indication of pathology. We describe the administration of TOPPS in a female student-athlete who presented for intervention with no assessed mental health pathology. Although experimental methodology was uncontrolled, many of the methodological features in this examination were advanced. Treatment integrity was reliably assessed and the athlete demonstrated significant improvements in psychometrically validated measurements of mental health and sport performance from baseline to 5-months post-treatment, including psychiatric domains (somatization, obsessive–compulsive, interpersonal sensitivity, depression, anxiety, phobic anxiety, paranoid ideation, and psychoticism), relationships with teammates, family members, coaches, and peers, and measures of sport performance. Future directions are reported in light of the results.