Stress and risk for depression in competitive athletes suffering from back pain – Do age and gender matter?^†

Abstract

Back pain (BP), a prominent problem for competitive athletes, is a primary reason for limitations in athletic performance and daily life restrictions. As studies on the relationship between psychological variables and BP in athletes are scarce, the aim of this study was to investigate stress and depression in competitive athletes with BP. In a cross-sectional design, data of 154 competitive athletes (51% female; M= 18.81 years, SD= 5.05 years) were collected, assessing Performance stress, Socio-emotional stress, Risk for depression and Psychological well-being and the two BP parameters BP Intensity and Disability. Two multiple linear regressions were conducted to predict (1) BP Intensity and (2) Disability from Performance stress, Socio-emotional stress, Risk for depression and Psychological well-being. Multiple linear regressions demonstrated that Performance stress (β = .21, p = .01) was the only significant predictor of BP Intensity (F= 6.68, p = .01, R = .05), whilst Risk for depression (β = .24, p = .01) was the only significant predictor of Disability (F= 8.46, p = .01, R = .06). Neither gender nor age explained a significant amount of variance in the models. Study results showed that, as in the general population, the variables stress and depression are related to BP in competitive athletes. In particular, BP intensity was found to be associated with stress and BP-related disability was associated with depression, whereas age and gender showed no association with the BP parameters. A longitudinal investigation is warranted to determine the direction of the observed relationships.

Mental Health Profiles of Danish Youth Soccer Players: The Influence of Gender and Career Development

“…Gender differences and prevalence rates of depression and anxiety among Swiss top-level male and female soccer players were studied by Junge and Feddermann-Demont (2016). Male first league players had significantly lower average depression scores than male U-21 and female players; whereas, other studies found that younger athletes had lower stress levels and higher well-being than older athletes (e.g., Belz et al, 2018). A study with Icelandic team-sport athletes suggested that although female athletes may be more likely than males to experience moderate levels of depressive symptoms, the rates of more severe symptomology may be comparable between the sexes (Tahtinen, Kristjansdottir, Olason, & Morris, 2021).…”

Estresse mental em atletas de elite: Uma revisão sistemática

“…Houve relação entre aumento do estresse e, atletas de elite, verificado inclusive em estudos controlados com a população de não atletas (Dziembowska et al, 2019;Vannuccini et al, 2020). Houve grande variação do método de medição do estresse mental, a medição ocorreu em dados subjetivos como em escalas (Belz et al, 2018;Codonhato et al, 2018;Dziembowska et al, 2019;Horta et al, 2019;Vannuccini et al, 2020) e exames bioquímicos como a medição de saliva no cortisol (Dziembowska et al, 2019;Horta et al, 2019;O'donnell et al, 2018;Siart et al, 2017). Nesse sentindo impossibilitou a realização de uma metaanálise, como mencionado na metodologia, mesmo com dados apresentados serem quantitativos.…”

“…Essas diferenças podem ser verificadas até mesmo entre mesmas medidas de mensuração, como por exemplo o uso do Questionário de estresse de recuperação para atletas (Recovery-Stress Questionnaire for Athletes -RESTQ), cujo objetivo é avaliar o estresse de recuperação atual do indivíduo (Belz et al, 2018;Codonhato et al, 2018 Outro método utilizado foi a análise de cortisol pela, importante também em detecção de estresse em diferentes áreas da saúde e recorrente investigado em desportos (Siart et al, 2017), o cortisol é um hormônio glicocorticoide liberado pelas glândulas adrenais em resposta ao estresse psicológico e fisiológico Quatros estudos dessa revisão (Dziembowska et al, 2019;Horta et al, 2019;O'donnell et al, 2018;Siart et al, 2017) verificaram o cortisol para medidas de desfechos de estresse, nessas pesquisas o cortisol esteve elevado conforme carga de treinamento ou intensificação de treinamento para competições. Belz et al (2018) observou que os níveis de cortisol, aumentaram entre 24 horas antes da competição, esse aumento do cortisol em momento tão curto, indica que uma competição é um estressor fisiológico grave.…”

“…No estudo de Vannuccini et al (2019), os autores inferiram que ciclo menstrual, podia interferir negativamente no estresse de mulheres. No entanto nenhuma diferença de gênero foi encontrada em relação ao estresse nos estudos em que população era composta por atletas do sexo masculino e feminino (Belz et al, 2018;Siart et al, 2017). Belz et al (2019) verificou ainda que houve diferenças em relação à idade, no qual atletas com menos de 18 anos apresentaram menor estresse socioemocional e maior bem-estar psicológico sendo do que atletas mais velhos, nas outras pesquisas não indicaram essa relação idade, é importante ressaltar que a amostra dos outros estudos era composta por jovens adultos (Codonhato et al, 2018;Dziembowska et al, 2019;Horta et al, 2019;O'donnell et al, 2018;Siart et al, 2017;Vannuccini et al, 2020), uma análise em blocos com atletas de elite adoslecentes, jovens e sênior é necessário no futuro.…”

Depression and suicidal ideation in high‐performance athletes suffering from low back pain: The role of stress and pain‐related thought suppression

“…In non‐athletes with chronic pain, stress and cognitive responses play a role in depression (Banks & Kerns, ; Hülsebusch, Hasenbring, & Rusu, ; Klasen, Brüggert, & Hasenbring, ) and suicidal ideation (Breivik, Reme, & Linton, ; Legarreta, Bueler, DiMuzio, McGlade, & Yurgelun‐Todd, ; McCracken, Patel, & Scott, ; Racine, Choinière, & Nielson, ). While stress is also a known risk factor for depression (Belz et al, ; Frank, Nixdorf, & Beckmann, ; Frank et al, ; Rao & Hong, ) and suicidality in athletes (Smith & Milliner, ), little is known about the role of dysfunctional cognitive pain responses in athletes (Azevedo & Samulski, ; Hasenbring et al, ), and mechanisms of possible interactions remain unknown.…”