Sports psychiatry is a medical specialty that aims to treat and prevent mental disorders in athletes and helps them use different techniques to enhance their performance. First mentioned in literature in 1967, it is a developing area that relies on other fields, like sports psychology.
History
The first publication on sports psychiatry was written in 1967 by Arnold R Beisser, a doctor and tennis player. It was brought up in literature again twenty years later by JH Rick Massimino, MD, and mentioned again in 1992 by California-based psychiatrist Daniel Begel, who is known for officially launching the specialty. As the field developed, the World Psychiatric Association eventually created a section on Exercise and Sports Psychiatry, giving way for interest in other countries, including Britain and Germany.
In 1994, Begel founded the International Society for Sports Psychiatry. The organization aims to spread the benefits of the field to the entire athletic community and promote mental health in sports. ISSP membership in 2020 is open to medical students, residents, psychiatrists, and other clinicians at times.
Requirements
The requirements to be a sports psychiatrist as of 2018 are the same as for any psychiatrist. However, in addition to that, they must be aware of individual and team culture as well as approach the prescription of medication with a perspective on doping in sports.
Professional differences
Differences between sports psychologists and psychiatrists, according to Antonia Baum, are that although both areas aim to enhance athletes' performance, psychiatry also focuses on psychopathology and tries to uncover deeper issues than performance problems. Additionally, psychiatrists are able to prescribe psychotropic medication.
Usually, sports psychiatrists choose non-sedating medications because they are less likely to cause side effects such as an increase in weight and body fat, sedentary behavior, a decrease in insulin sensitivity, cardiac issues. The effect on athletes' performance must also be taken into consideration, as well the anti-doping guidelines of different sports leagues. The World Anti-Doping Agency provides a list of generally banned substances, and it is left to each leagues' discretion to add a more strict code. Widely used medications include antidepressants, mood stabilizers, anticonvulsants, anxiolytics, Psychostimulants/ADHD medications, and sometimes sedative hypnotics and antipsychotics.
In professional sports more than others, seeking assistance to improve one's mental health is often stigmatized. Athletes will most commonly seek help from psychologists first or not go for help at all, and serious mental health-related issues might go unrecognized. Hence, another role of ports psychiatrists is to help de-stigmatize and promote mental health among athletes.
