Mental health in Iranian elite athletes: a 14 year retrospective study

Little research has been carried out on the common symptoms and mental disorders in Iranian elite athletes. The purpose of this study was to identify the mental health problems in Iranian elite athletes as a retrospective study at the National Olympic Academy (NOA) of Iran. The present study is a cross-sectional and retrospective descriptive study which was conducted by evaluating the athletes' psychological documents. A total of 143 athletes (male, n= 83, female, n= 60) were analyzed from the population of elite athletes (n=240) who referred to the mental training and consulting center in the NOA during the years 2007-2021. The results showed that most athletes referred to the center to improve their performance (37.8%). Anxiety (27.3%), depression (16.8%), interpersonal problems (11.2%), impulsiveness (2.8%) post-traumatic stress (PTSD) (2.8%), sleep disturbance (1.4%) were the most common mental disorders reported by athletes. In addition, surveying the relationship between demographic characteristics and mental health issues revealed a relationship between gender and mental health problems; there was no relationship between other demographic variables with mental health problems. The results of this study illuminate the spread of common mental health problems in Iranian elite athletes over the last fourteen years. Screening and diagnosing psychological problems provide a better understanding of the application of appropriate psychological interventions and improving the mental health of elite athletes. Accordingly, future research may focus on better understanding of mental health problems reported in this study and studies them in a larger population.