Psychiatric Disorders in Elite Athletes

Abstract

Previous literature has described the importance of increased knowledge about the mental health of elite athletes. This systematic literature review aimed to investigate clinically diagnosed psychiatric disorders in elite athletes, including possible connections between being an elite athlete and psychiatric disorders. The databases EMBASE, MEDLINE, SPORTDiscus and Psychinfo have been systematically searched from January 1975 to December 2022. Two authors have conducted title-, abstract- and full-text screening as well as quality assessment independently. The search identified 12,490 records up until December 2022. After a removal of duplicates and double screening, 11 studies consisting of 4,492 elite athletes were included. The mean age of the included athletes was 18.6 years, and most studies included were Scandinavian. Most studies investigated multiple types of sport simultaneously. Findings revealed that eating disorder was the most studied psychiatric disorder in this population, while depression and anxiety were more sparsely investigated. Furthermore, female athletes had a higher occurrence of both eating disorders, depression, and anxiety than male athletes. Additional studies based on diagnostic interviews need to be conducted to investigate possible associations between elite athletes and psychiatric disorders.