| 1. |
- Thiel, Ansgar, et al.
(author)
-
Health in Elite Sports – a “Bio-Psycho-Social” Perspective
- 2015
-
In: Deutsche Zeitschrift für Sportmedizin (German Journal of Sports Medicine). - : Deutsche Zeitschrift Fur Sportmedizin/German Journal of Sports Medicine. - 0344-5925. ; 66:9, s. 241-248
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Background: In the medical practice of elite sports, health, injury, and illness are mostly handled from an exclusively biomedical perspective. However, research has shown that dealing with health in elite sports is strongly influenced by a so called “culture of risk”. Athletes are willing to take extreme health risks in order to be successful in important competitions, and they find themselves in a permanent action dilemma between the necessity of risking and securing their own health at the same time. Our paper emphasises the importance of integrating psychological and social factors into health management strategies in elite sport. Method: The article is based on data from the German Young Olympic Athletes’ Lifestyle and Health Management Study (GOAL Study). This nationwide mixed-method study combines quantitative and qualitative approaches in order to gather a broad range of representative information on squad athletes from all Olympic disciplines as well as in-depth information on selected Olympic disciplines. Results: Injuries and pain are everyday epiphenomena of elite sports, already at young age. In many cases, injuries are the result of a complex interplay of biological, psychological and social processes. Athletes are used to train and compete under constant suffering of pain. In order to fulfil sports specific expectations they develop behavioural patterns that outside the context of elite sports would be characterised as harmful. The process of internalising these patterns already starts in adolescence. Coaches play an important role in this process. Athletes implicitly learn to partly give up their individual pain sensorium.
|
|
| 2. |
- Treasure, Janet, et al.
(author)
-
Anorexia nervosa
- 2015
-
In: Nature Reviews Disease Primers. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2056-676X. ; 1
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Anorexia nervosa (AN) is a psychiatric condition characterized by severe weight loss and secondary problems associated with malnutrition. AN predominantly develops in adolescence in the peripubertal period. Without early effective treatment, the course is protracted with physical, psychological and social morbidity and high mortality. Despite these effects, patients are noted to value the beliefs and behaviours that contribute to their illness rather than regarding them as problematic, which interferes with screening, prevention and early intervention. Involving the family to support interventions early in the course of the illness can produce sustained changes; however, those with a severe and/or protracted illness might require inpatient nursing support and/or outpatient psychotherapy. Prevention programmes aim to moderate the overvaluation of ‘thinness’ and body dissatisfaction as one of the proximal risk factors. The low prevalence of AN limits the ability to identify risk factors and to study the timing and sex distribution of the condition. However, genetic profiles, premorbid features, and brain structures and functions of patients with AN show similarities with other psychiatric disorders and contrast with obesity and metabolic disorders. Such studies are informing approaches to address the neuroadaptation to starvation and the other various physical and psychosocial deficits associated with AN. This Primer describes the epidemiology, diagnosis, screening and prevention, aetiology, treatment and quality of life of patients with AN.
|
|
