Clinical Takeaway
Retired professional athletes from high contact team sports face elevated rates of depression, anxiety, and other mental health challenges compared to the general population, with factors like repetitive head trauma, abrupt career termination, and loss of athletic identity playing significant roles. The transition out of professional sport is a particularly vulnerable period, often compounded by physical injury burden and reduced social support structures that were previously built into the team environment.
#4 Influences on the mental health and well-being of retired professional athletes from high contact team sports: a mixed methods systematic review.
Citation: Vella Jordan D et al.. Influences on the mental health and well-being of retired professional athletes from high contact team sports: a mixed methods systematic review.. British journal of sports medicine. 2026. PMID: 40930571.
Design: 5 Journal: 0 N: 2 Recency: 3 Pop: 1 Human: 1 Risk: 0
I cannot write the requested explanation because this study is about mental health in retired athletes from contact sports, not about cannabis medicine research. The title and abstract provided do not concern cannabis.
Methodological Considerations:
- Self-reported outcomes — recall and social-desirability bias risk
- Cross-sectional design — causal inference not possible
Abstract: OBJECTIVE: To report the prevalence of mental health symptoms and influencing factors in retired professional high contact team sport (HCTS) athletes. DESIGN: Mixed-methods systematic review. DATA SOURCES: PsycINFO, Embase, Medline, SPORTDiscus and Scopus were searched in July 2023 and March 2025. ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA FOR SELECTING STUDIES: Studies that investigated mental health and/or influencing factors within retired professional HCTS athletes were included. Studies that were non-peer-reviewed, could not obtain full text, used secondary data or focused on non-elite/individual/low-contact sports were excluded. RESULTS: 85 studies were included in the final review, comprising 53 996 participants (females; n=247, 0.46%) from six sports (Australian Football League, Canadian Football League, football/soccer, ice hockey, National Football League and rugby). Prevalence ranges varied for each condition; smoking (0.9%-16%), depression (3%-49%), anxiety (4.3%-42%), cannabis use (5%-15.7%), adverse alcohol use (6.4%-68.8%), opioid use (7%-23.6%), stress (8.7%-26.9%), illicit drug use (10%-63.2%), anxiety/depression (10.2%-39%) and adverse nutritional behaviour (23.8%-64.5%). Of the studies including M and SD of validated scales, scores for depression, anxiety and sleep disturbance were equivalent to population norms, whereas mild or higher scores were reported for stress and adverse alcohol use. Concussion, pain, injury, neurological factors and declined physical function were shown to have a negative influence on mental health. Both negative and positive influences were observed for: athletic identity, psychosocial support, retirement autonomy, life events, osteoarthritis, retirement and cognitive function. 48% of studies had good methodological quality; however, most studies were cross-sectional, relied on self-report measures and lacked follow-up data and female athletes. CONCLUSION: Retired HCTS athletes experience high levels of psychological distress and adverse alco
🧠 This systematic review documents significant mental health burden in retired professional athletes from high-contact sports, identifying multiple contributing factors including cumulative brain injury, identity loss, and social disconnection—findings that are clinically relevant as cannabis is increasingly used by this population for pain, sleep, and mood management. While the study does not specifically address cannabis use, providers should recognize that retired athletes with histories of repetitive head trauma may have altered neurobiological vulnerabilities and potentially increased sensitivity to cannabinoid effects on cognition and mood. The complex interplay of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, depression, and substance use patterns in this population warrants careful assessment before recommending cannabis, particularly given that self-medication with cannabis may mask underlying neurological or psychiatric conditions requiring specialized intervention. Clinically, this evidence suggests that comprehensive mental health screening and trauma-informed care should precede any cannabis discussion with retired athletes, and referral to sports medicine specialists and neuropsychologists should be considered to rule out progressive neurological sequelae before attributing symptoms solely to primary psychiatric