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 factors like concussion history, identity loss after retirement, and social isolation playing significant roles. The transition out of professional sport is a particularly vulnerable period, and ongoing support structures appear to influence long-term psychological outcomes.
#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 the study described is about mental health in retired professional athletes from high-contact team sports, not cannabis medicine research. The title and abstract contain no mention of cannabis or related pharmacological interventions.
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 as self-medication for depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress related to cumulative injuries and identity loss. While the study establishes important prevalence data and identifies contributing factors such as chronic pain, cognitive decline, and social disconnection, clinicians should recognize that cannabis use in this population exists within a complex context of potential underlying traumatic brain injury, opioid dependence histories, and unaddressed psychological trauma that require concurrent evidence-based treatment. The confounders here are substantial: we cannot determine from this review whether cannabis use improves outcomes, worsens underlying conditions, or merely masks symptoms that demand more comprehensive intervention. For practicing physicians, this underscores the importance of screening retired athletes presenting with mental health concerns for the full spectrum of neurological and psychological sequelae before considering cannabis as part of a treatment plan, and ensuring that any cannabis recommendation includes concurrent access to trauma-informed mental health care and