@article{ref1,
title="The prevalence of depressive symptoms in high-performance athletes: a systematic review",
journal="Physician and sportsmedicine",
year="2020",
author="Golding, Leigh and Gillingham, Rory Giles and Perera, Nirmala Kanthi Panagodage",
volume="ePub",
number="ePub",
pages="ePub-ePub",
abstract="<b>Objective</b>: To provide an up-to-date overview of the prevalence of depressive symptoms in high-performance athletes and describe the tools used to assess for these in order to identify knowledge gaps and potential future research priorities.<b>Data sources</b>: PubMed, EMBASE, SPORTDiscus, PsychINFO, and Cochrane were systematically searched from December 1993 to December 2018. Peer-reviewed original research articles reporting the prevalence of depression among high-performance athletes aged ≥ 17 years were included.<b>Study selection</b>: Sixteen studies satisfied the inclusion criteria, and seven had a low risk of bias.<b>Data extraction</b>: The Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) was the most commonly used tool to assess for depressive symptoms. The prevalence of those with high depression symptom cutoff scores ranged from 6.7% to 34.0%.<b>Data synthesis</b>: Higher levels of competition, injuries, > 3 concussions, and female sex were identified as potential risk factors for depression. Female athletes and athletes playing individual sports had high risk of having elevated depression symptom scores.<b>Conclusions</b>: Prevention of mental illness in high-performance sports is a novel and emerging field of research interest. This review highlights the prevalence of high depression symptom scores among high-performance athletes. The data collection methods, sample size, sport and athlete population, and tools used to assess depression vary across studies; thus, findings cannot be generalized. This review establishes the need for data collection enhancements with robust longitudinal study designs and standardized depression assessment tools to guide the development of evidence-based mental wellbeing interventions.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0091-3847",
doi="10.1080/00913847.2020.1713708",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00913847.2020.1713708"
}