Adults Who Play Sports Say It Helps Their Mental Health

The forthcoming 2024 Olympics in Paris will likely inspire more than a few armchair sports enthusiasts and their kids to participate in sports themselves—which may lift their emotional well-being. According to APA’s latest Healthy Minds poll, an overwhelming majority of Americans who participate in sports either competitively or recreationally say that it benefits their mental health.

The poll, conducted online June 18 and 19 by Morning Consult on behalf of APA, asked 2,203 adults for their thoughts on sports and mental health and found the following:

• 67% of men and 48% of women (57% overall) said they participated in sports, with swimming, basketball, and running the most popular activities.
• 67% of Black adults, 70% of Hispanic adults, and 50% of non-Hispanic White adults said they participated in sports.
• 84% of those who participate in sports said it benefits their mental health.

In addition, 73% of respondents said that team sports are very or somewhat beneficial for children and teenagers’ mental health. These participants said that team sports offer important benefits besides staying active, such as increased confidence camaraderie, and a sense of structure.

“You don’t have to be an Olympic athlete to reap the mental health benefits of exercise and sports,” said APA President Ramaswamy Viswanathan, M.D., Dr.Med.Sc., in a news release. “Getting together with a group of friends, working out, having a hobby, all these aspects of sports can be good for positive mental health.”

Studies have shown that exercise may help reduce symptoms of depression and maintain well-being both as a primary treatment and in conjunction with medication or therapy. There is also evidence that exercise benefits people with posttraumatic stress disorder, anxiety, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

Among all respondents, 85% agreed that mental health should be prioritized as much as physical health in professional athletes.

“In recent years we’ve heard Olympic and professional athletes share stories about their own mental health challenges,” said APA CEO and Medical Director Marketa M. Wills, M.D., M.B.A. “Their courage and openness helps others understand that it’s okay to take a break or ask for help when needed.”

For related information, see the Psychiatric News article “Exercise May Offset Genetic Risk of Depression.”

(Image: Getty Images/iStock/Chris Williams Black Box)

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Boston Strong as Marathon Goes On; MH Help Still Available

Runners took off this morning in the Boston Marathon, two years after the bombing that claimed three lives and left 257 injured. A jury on April 8 convicted Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on 30 counts related to the crime.

The Boston-area health care system responded well to the immediate disaster thanks to extensive prior training, said Frederick Stoddard, M.D. (left), a psychiatrist at the Massachusetts General Hospital. However, some of those wounded in 2013 or members of their families continue to face the physical and psychological consequences of the bombing. 

Since then, many have turned for help to the Massachusetts Resiliency Center, created by the state’s Office of Victim Assistance.

“We’re helping normal people dealing with abnormal circumstances that disrupt daily functioning,” the center’s executive director, Kermit Crawford, Ph.D., told Psychiatric News. He is an associate professor of psychiatry at Boston University Medical Campus. “We are a hub for services, not just providing them ourselves but coordinating with other agencies.”

The center addresses not only behavioral health issues but also matters relating to employment, compensation, medical services, brain injury, hearing loss, caregiver and peer support, and legal services—all of which can affect victims or their survivors. During the recent trial, the center placed clinicians and patient navigators in the court building for survivors or family members who chose to attend. Such options for care may be needed for some time.

“As a psychiatrist, I understand that reactions to trauma may not occur right away but often come out months or years later,” said Brent Forester, M.D., a geriatric psychiatrist at McLean Hospital who completed the 2013 marathon. “It’s important to get that message out.”

For more in Psychiatric News about the response to the Boston Marathon bombing, see “Boston Continues to Heal as Trial Wraps Up for Accused Marathon Bomber” and “Psychiatrists Act Quickly After Bombings In Boston.”

The book Disaster Psychiatry: Readiness, Evaluation, and Treatment is available from American Psychiatric Publishing at http://www.appi.org/SearchCenter/Pages/SearchDetail.aspx?ItemId=7217.

--aml  (Image: Courtesy Frederick Stoddard)

Resting the Brain Appears to Help Concussion Victims Recover, Study Finds

Too much thinking may hinder recovery from concussion, suggests a study of the effects of cognitive activity on the duration of postconcussion symptoms. Physical and cognitive rest are considered central to recovery from concussion but prior research on the importance of cognitive activity was unclear.

The study assessed 335 athletes (average age 15) seen in a sports concussion clinic at Children’s Hospital Boston. Ice hockey, football, basketball, and soccer players accounted for most of the patients. The researchers found that total symptom burden at the first visit and cognitive activity were associated with the duration of concussion symptoms, said William Meehan, M.D., and colleagues online January 6 in Pediatrics. Meehan is with the Brain Injury Center and Division of Sports Medicine at Children's Hospital Boston.

“[C]ognitive rest entails limiting activities that require attention and concentration, such as reading, text messaging, video game playing, working online, and performing schoolwork,” the researchers noted.

They hypothesize that adenosine triphosphate (ATP) might help explain how cognitive rest affects recovery. ATP is needed in brain cells to restore homeostasis, but decreased cerebral blood flow following concussion causes an imbalance between increased need for ATP and a decreased supply, which prolongs concussion symptoms. “One of the reasons for instituting cognitive rest is to conserve the limited ATP supplies for injury recovery, as opposed to using ATP for intellectual tasks,” they said. Complete abstinence from those cognitive tasks is not necessary, they said, but they recommend academic accommodations until the concussion symptoms disappear.

To read more about the effects of concussion, see the Psychiatric News article, "New Effort Begins to Prevent, Intervene on Concussions." Also see the study, "Outcomes of Sport-Related Concussion Among College Athletes" in the Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences.

(Image: Aspen Photo/Shutterstock.com)