Abstract
Researchers have raised concerns about mental health in elite athletes, including problem gambling, where research hitherto is scarce. While gambling has been assessed in the younger student-athlete population, neither gambling nor the recently recognized behavioral addiction of gaming disorder has been sufficiently addressed in the elite athlete population. The present systematic literature review aimed to summarize research knowledge on the prevalence and correlates of problem gambling and problem gaming in elite athletes. Research papers were searched systematically using the Scopus, PsycINFO, and PubMed/MEDLINE databases and evaluated following a PRISMA paradigm. For the elite athlete population, eight reports on problem gambling and one report on problem gaming were found. While at least five papers indicated an increased risk of problem gambling in elite athletes compared to the general population, one study from Australia indicated the opposite. Problem gambling was generally more common in male athletes. Knowledge of problem gaming prevalence is thus far limited. It is concluded that increased research in problem gambling and problem gaming in elite athletes is warranted.
Highlights
International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction affected by stigma, difficulties in treatment access, and by a risk of athletes being perceived as healthier than they are, due to their great physical capacity and seemingly high degree of personal success and life satisfaction
The mental health issues seen in elite athletes and the general population include a broad range of disorders and symptoms, some behavioral addictions have been highlighted as a potential risk for athletes (Reardon et al, 2019; Rice et al, 2016)
The research field of behavioral addictions has expanded, and while gambling disorder so far has represented the only non-substance addictive disorders recognized by diagnostic manuals, problems related to video game behavior have been increasingly highlighted and recently included as a diagnosis in the World Health Organization (2018) diagnostic system (ICD-11), named the gaming disorder
Summary
International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction affected by stigma, difficulties in treatment access, and by a risk of athletes being perceived as healthier than they are, due to their great physical capacity and seemingly high degree of personal success and life satisfaction. The mental health issues seen in elite athletes and the general population include a broad range of disorders and symptoms, some behavioral addictions have been highlighted as a potential risk for athletes (Reardon et al, 2019; Rice et al, 2016). Problem gambling, including the narrower concept of the gambling disorder, is a well-established construct in diagnostic manuals (American Psychiatric Association, 2013; World Health Organization, 2018) and known to affect somewhere between less than 1% and up to 5–6% of the general population, across different settings and studies (Calado & Griffiths, 2016). Few years prior to this, the corresponding disorder (internet gaming disorder) was addressed by the DSM-5 working group and included as a potential diagnosis in need for more research (American Psychiatric Association, 2013)
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