Clinical Takeaway
Retired professional athletes from high contact team sports show elevated rates of depression, anxiety, and other mental health challenges compared to the general population, with career-related factors like concussion history and abrupt retirement playing significant roles. Social support, identity, and physical health after leaving sport are key influences on long-term psychological outcomes. Clinicians working with this population should screen proactively for mental health conditions and address the unique stressors tied to athletic career transitions.
#3 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 does not concern cannabis medicine research. The systematic review examines mental health outcomes in retired professional athletes from high-contact team sports, with no apparent focus on cannabis therapeutics. Please provide a cannabis-related study if you need an explanation of its clinical significance.
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 highlights significant mental health vulnerabilities in retired professional athletes from high-contact sports, a population that may increasingly seek cannabis for symptom management of depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress related to chronic traumatic encephalopathy or cumulative injury. While the study does not directly address cannabis use, clinicians should recognize that retired athletes often self-medicate with cannabis for pain, sleep disruption, and mood symptoms stemming from both physical injuries and psychological trauma accumulated over their careers. Important confounders include the role of social identity loss, financial instability, and access to traditional mental health care, which can all drive substance use patterns independent of cannabis’s pharmacological effects. The evidence base for cannabis efficacy in this population remains limited, and we lack robust data on whether cannabis use improves long-term outcomes or potentially complicates underlying neurological conditions in athletes with prior head trauma. Clinically, when evaluating retired athletes presenting with mental health concerns, we should conduct thorough differential diagnoses, optimize conventional evidence-based