Gorczynski PF, et al. – This research ascertained if a variation existed in the prevalence of mild or more severe depressive symptoms, among high–performance athletes and non–athletes. High–performance athletes exhibited a similar tendency as non–athletes to report depressive symptoms. Researchers were suggested to move beyond self–report measures of depressive symptoms and inspect the prevalence of clinically diagnosed depressive disorders in athletes.

Methods

• The scheme of this research was a comparative OR meta-analysis.
• Data was cumulated from the PsycINFO, PubMed, MEDLINE, CINAHL, SPORTDiscus and Google Scholar, along with the reference lists of reviews of mental health issues in high-performance athletes.
• Studies that compared high-performance athletes and non-athletes, included a validated measure of depressive symptoms and included the prevalence of individuals who indicated at least mild depressive symptoms were encompassed in this research.

Results

• 5 articles were inspected, that reported data from 1545 high-performance athletes and 1811 non-athletes.
• High-performance athletes were no more likely than non-athletes to report mild or more severe depressive symptoms (OR=1.15, 95% CI=0.954 to 1.383, p=0.145).
• Male high-performance athletes (n=940) were no more likely than male non-athletes (n=605) to report mild or more severe depressive symptoms (OR=1.17, 95% CI=0.839 to 1.616, p=0.362).
• High-performance athletes (n=948) were no more likely than non-athletes (n=605) to report mild or more severe depressive symptoms (OR=1.11, 95% CI=0.846 to 1.442, p=0.464), among females.
• Overall, male high-performance athletes (n=874) exhibited 52% less likelihood of reporting mild or more severe depressive symptoms than female high-performance athletes (n=705) (OR=0.48, 95% CI=0.369 to 0.621, p<0.001).