A commentary on: The Experience of Depression during the Careers of Elite Male Athletes by Doherty, S., Hannigan, B., and Campbell, M. J. (2016). Front. Psychol. 7:1069. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01069 Currently little is known about the prevalence and etiology of depression in the athletic population (Nixdorf et al., 2015). Almost 75% of mental health difficulties first emerge between the ages of 15 and 25 (Kessler et al., 2005). And arguably the peak years for elite sport performance overlap with the period where the risk of mental health disorders are highest. Given the context of sport and the nature of competition and youth sport, how many coaches, parents and sporting organizations have ever considered this evidence or acted upon it? Sport and mental health have been artificially decoupled due in part to mental health stigma.
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