sports and society – SEMS-journal

Has COVID-19 Changed the Future of Physiotherapy?

Life post Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) will not be same for anyone and like so many professions it will be a challenging time for physiotherapists and health care providers. A lot of practitioners are going through economic challenges because of the imposed lock down in various countries. As the situation recovers and more people resume their working life, we physiotherapists should be more concerned now while attending to our clients. As front-line practitioners, physiotherapists are more prone to have direct contact with patients affected with COVID-19.

sports and society sports nutrition depression performance RED-S recovery

Exercise addiction – cases, possible indicators and open questions

While addictive disorders involving substances are well researched, the field of behavioral addictions, including exercise addiction, is in its infancy. Although exercise addiction is not yet recognized as a psychiatric disorder, evidence for the burden it imposes has gained attention in the last decade. Characterised by a rigid exercise schedule, the prioritization of exercise over one’s own health, family and professional life, and mental wellbeing, and extreme distress when exercise is halted, the phenomenon shares many feature with substance use disorders.

antidoping sports and society doping training

Muscle dysmorphia

The current ideal of beauty consists of a strong shift towards physical activity and aims to develop a muscular, athletic physique. While the athletic ideal for women has been a product of recent years, the muscular ideal for men has been observed since the 1970s. Increasing pressure to achieve this muscular ideal is associated with both body dissatisfaction and a strong desire to increase muscularity. In extreme terms, the pursuit of a muscular body and its associated behaviours, such as strength training and dieting, may lead to the development of muscle dysmorphia.

sports and society sports and youth maturation

LGBTQI and sports – future implications for sports psychiatry

LGBTQI 1) people and especially transgender, non-binary and intersex people have a longstanding history of discrimination when it comes to sports. While the media focuses on the discussion whether transgender, non binary, and intersex people should be allowed to compete in elite amateur and professional sports at all, the majority of transgender, non-binary and intersex athletes are facing obstacles in everyday sports beyond cis and dyadic peoples’ imagination.

sports and society cardiology doping education

Strong, silent and stigmatized

The global lifetime prevalence rate of all image and performance enhancing drugs (IPED) is unknown, however it is 6.4% in men an 1.6% in women for anabolic androgenic steroids (1). IPED are widely used in the bodybuilding scene and have found a bigger audience through social media platforms.

elite sports sports and society sports medicine team management depression

Mental health in competitive sports in times of COVID-19

Changes in public life, isolation, quarantine, and associated constraints within usual routine, as well as anxieties and concerns, are just some of many examples of psychiatric burdens caused by the COVID-19 pandemic (1). Not only the general population, but professional athletes in particular, are exposed to these challenges, as professional sports came to an abrupt halt upon occurrence of COVID-19.

sports and society sports injury

Sports-psychiatry and psychotherapy for alpine sports

Alpine sports are comprised of multiple disciplines like mountaineering, climbing, ice-climbing, high-altitude mountaineering, trekking, canyoning and ski-mountaineering. However, there is no standardised definition of alpine sports. Alpinism in a broader sense includes as well mountain science, mountain guiding and alpine rescue. Hence this article focuses on sport activities in an alpine environment and on the possible psychiatric impact thereof.

exercise is medicine PA promotion Mental health sports and society

SSSPP Position paper: Physical activity and mental health

Promoting physical activity (PA) has not yet been established as a standard procedure in psychiatric care. Psychiatric patients are at higher chance to be physically inactive which contributes to increased morbidity and mortality. Regular PA has shown to improve mental wellbeing in the general population and reduces the risk to develop several mental disorders. Assessing PA and motivation for change should be established as routine in psychiatric practice.

elite sports exercise is medicine Mental health depression stress sports and society training

How athletes coped with COVID-19 restrictions: differences between Switzerland and Italy

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is a global crisis of unprecedented scale in modern times. The initial outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan spread rapidly, affecting other parts of China and soon other countries becoming a global threat. (1) On 11 March 2020, the WHO has declared the ‘Pandemic state’ calling the governments to take ‘urgent and aggressive action’ to delay and mitigate the peak of infection.

elite sports performance exercise is medicine PA promotion physical education sports and society sports and youth growth maturation team management

Health for Performance: a necessary paradigm shift for youth athletes

Competitive and elite sport often challenges the balance between health and performance, especially when it involves youth athletes. As Lausanne was getting ready to host the 2020 winter Youth Olympic Games, we had the opportunity to reflect on these challenges and on what they mean for sports medicine practitioners. Elite sport pushes athletes to the limit, be it through their own intrinsic drive to achieve ever more, or through the pressures of the multiple stakeholders around sport.