Sport psychiatry: Aspects of a developing field

Abstract

Sport psychiatry can be seen as a new and rapidly developing global field, due not only to the growing popularity of sports in the general population but also to the highly challenging environments in a professional setting. Mental health problems like brain trauma, depression, suicide, doping, physical trauma and abuse, and also sport-specific problems like the female athletic triad or overtraining are risks endangering the physical and psychological benefits that can be expected from sport and exercise. Working with individual athletes or teams requires special knowledge and skills but also awareness of ethical challenges encountered especially in high-performance sports.