Neuropsychiatry

ORIGINAL RESEARCH

J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry: first published as 10.1136/jnnp-2020-323315 on 21 July 2020. Downloaded from http://jnnp.bmj.com/ on April 16, 2025 by guest.
Mental health and suicide in former professional
soccer players
Emma R Russell,1 Thomas McCabe,2 Daniel F Mackay,3 Katy Stewart,4,5
John A MacLean,4,5 Jill P Pell,3 William Stewart ‍ ‍1,6

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1
Institute of Neuroscience ABSTRACT these observations, there remain limited robust
and Psychology, University of Introduction There is growing recognition of an epidemiological data regarding mental health
Glasgow, Glasgow, UK
2
School of Medicine, Dentistry association between contact sports participation outcomes in former contact sports athletes with
and Nursing, University of and increased risk of neurodegenerative disease, known risk of neurodegenerative disease.
Glasgow, Glasgow, UK including Alzheimer’s disease and chronic traumatic Early in the 20th century, descriptions of the
3
Institute of Health and encephalopathy. In addition to cognitive impairment, punch-­drunk syndrome of former boxers8 led to
Wellbeing, University of
a range of mental health disorders and suicidality recognition of the association between exposure to
Glasgow, Glasgow, UK
4
Institute of Cardiovascular and are proposed as diagnostic features of traumatic traumatic brain injury and increased risk of neuro-
Medical Sciences, University of encephalopathy syndrome, the putative clinical syndrome degenerative disease. Later described as dementia
Glasgow, Glasgow, UK
5
associated with chronic traumatic encephalopathy. pugilistica, the clinical picture that emerged was
Hampden Sports Clinic, However, to date, epidemiological data on contact sport
Hampden Park, Glasgow, UK one of a relatively stereotyped syndrome featuring
6
Department of Neuropathology, participation and mental health outcomes are limited. emotional lability, personality change, cogni-
NHS Greater Glasgow and Methods For a cohort of former professional soccer tive impairment and dementia.9 This issue came
Clyde, Glasgow, UK players (n=7676) with known high neurodegenerative
to wider attention through recognition of the
mortality and their matched general population controls
pathology of dementia pugilistica, now termed CTE
Correspondence to (n=23 028), data on mental health outcomes were
Dr William Stewart, Department obtained by individual-­level record linkage to national neuropathologic change,10 in autopsy studies of
of Neuropathology, NHS Greater wider non-­boxer athletes, including former soccer
Glasgow and Clyde, Glasgow electronic records of hospital admissions and death
players10 11 and others exposed to traumatic brain
G51 4TF, UK; ​william.​stewart@​ certification.
glasgow.​ac.​uk Results Compared with matched population controls, injury.4 12–14 Notably, in these more modern reports
former professional soccer players showed lower risk of non-­boxer athletes with CTE, in addition to the
Received 23 March 2020
of hospital admission for anxiety and stress related long-­recognised symptoms described in former
Revised 6 May 2020 boxers, reports of behavioural and neuropsychiatric
Accepted 17 June 2020 disorders, depression, drug use disorders, alcohol use
Published Online First 21 July disorders and bipolar and affective mood disorders. symptomatology have emerged, including aggres-
2020 Among soccer players, there was no significant difference sion, depression and suicidality.5–7 Conflicting with
in risk of hospitalisation for mental health disorders these autopsy observations, limited epidemiological
between outfield players and goalkeepers. There was no studies report lower suicide rates among former
significant difference in rate of death by suicide between National Football League (NFL) American foot-
soccer players and controls. ballers than anticipated from general population
Conclusions Among a population of former data.15 16
professional soccer players with known high Played in over 200 countries, soccer is the
neurodegenerative disease mortality, hospital admissions world’s most popular participation sport, with over
for common mental health disorders were lower than a quarter of a billion active participants worldwide.
population controls, with no difference in suicide. Our Among former professional soccer players neurode-
data provide support for the reappraisal of currently generative disease mortality is approximately 3.5-­
proposed diagnostic clinical criteria for traumatic fold higher than anticipated, with this risk ranging
encephalopathy syndrome, in particular the inclusion of from an approximately doubling of deaths with
mental health outcomes. Parkinson’s disease to a fivefold increase in deaths
with Alzheimer’s disease.17 Furthermore, CTE
neuropathologic change is present in the majority
►► http://​dx.​doi.​org/​10.​1136/​
of former soccer players dying with dementia.10
jnnp-​2020-​323616 INTRODUCTION
There are growing concerns around the risk of However, data are limited and inconsistent
common mental health disorders and suicide in regarding mental health disorders in professional
contact sports athletes.1 2 In part, this is driven by soccer players, with reported rates ranging from
© Author(s) (or their higher than expected18 19 to no different from the
employer(s)) 2020. No autopsy studies of retired athletes from a range of
commercial re-­use. See rights sports describing the frequent presence of a neuro- general population.20
and permissions. Published degenerative pathology linked to exposure to This retrospective cohort study is designed to
by BMJ. traumatic brain injury, chronic traumatic enceph- test the hypothesis that a population of former
To cite: Russell ER, McCabe alopathy (CTE) neuropathologic change,3 4 which professional soccer players with known high
T, Mackay DF, et al. J Neurol is thought to be associated with neuropsychiatric neurodegenerative mortality are at higher risk of
Neurosurg Psychiatry presentations, such as depression, impulsivity, common mental health disorders and have higher
2020;91:1256–1260. aggression and suicide.5–7 Nevertheless, despite rates of suicide than the general population.
1256 Russell ER, et al. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 2020;91:1256–1260. doi:10.1136/jnnp-2020-323315
 Neuropsychiatry
Second, that risk of mental health disorder is associated with
Table 1 International Classification of Diseases codes included in
player position.

J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry: first published as 10.1136/jnnp-2020-323315 on 21 July 2020. Downloaded from http://jnnp.bmj.com/ on April 16, 2025 by guest.
dataset searches
ICD-9 ICD-10
METHODS
Mental health disorder
Approvals
 Anxiety and stress related 300.0–300.9; 308.0–308.9; F40-­F45; F48; F50; F52
Individual participant-­level consent was not required as all health 309.3–309.9; 313.0
records data were anonymised to the researchers. The protocol
 Depression 296.2–296.3 F32-­F33
for ‘Football’s InfluencE on Lifelong outcomes and Dementia
 Alcohol use 291.0–291.9, 303.9 F10
risk (FIELD)’ is published elsewhere.21 This study is reported in
 Drug use 292.0–292.9, 304.0–304.9, F11-­F19
accordance with the Strengthening the Reporting of Observa-
305.0–305.9

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tional Studies in Epidemiology statement.22
 Bipolar and affective 296.0–296.1, 296.4–296.9 F30-­F31, F34-­F39
mood disorders
Cohort identification Mortality
Former professional soccer players were identified from the  Suicide E950-­E959 X60-­X84
Record of Pre-­war Scottish League Players (V.2)23 and the Record 905–909 R458
of Post-­War Scottish League Players (V.6).24 These databases are 940–949 Z915
compiled from the archives of the Scottish Football Museum ICD, International Classification of Diseases.
and individual clubs and contain information on all professional
Scottish league players, including player demographics (name
data were censored on 31 December, 2016, with the database
and date of birth) and career information (dates of first signing
interrogation performed on 10 December 2018.
and retirement, number of match appearances and player posi-
tion). From these databases, duplicate entries were merged to
a single player record. Probabilistic matching was then used to
Statistical analyses
For the whole cohort, Cox stratified proportional hazard regres-
match former players to their unique Community Health Index,
sion was used, and the assumption of proportionality was tested
an identifier that links each person in Scotland to their individual
using Schoenfeld residuals.25 Age was used as the time covariate,
electronic health records. Study entry was restricted to those
with follow-­up until the first eligible event (hospital admission
born prior to 1 January 1977. All former soccer players were
for mental health disorder or suicide respectively) censored for
male. Full details of the cohort are published elsewhere.17 21
all-­cause death or end of follow-­up, and the results reported
as HRs and 95% CIs. We repeated the analyses in the former
Matched population comparison group soccer player subgroup using standard Cox proportional hazards
The Community Health Index database was used to randomly with player position (outfield or goalkeeper) as the exposure of
identify a general population comparison group, individually interest. Mean age at first eligible event (mental health admis-
matched by sex, year of birth and social deprivation status to sion or death from suicide) was calculated using linear regression
former soccer players on a 3:1 basis; that is, for each former with cluster robust SEs to account for the case matched nature
soccer player, three matched population controls were identi- of the data. All statistical analyses were undertaken using Stata
fied. The National Health Service Information Services Division V.1626 with statistical significance set at two sided p<0.05.
records last known postcode of residence for all individuals, with
degree of socioeconomic deprivation for each postcode available RESULTS
as the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD), which Cohort characteristics and common mental health disorders
is derived from data on income, employment, health, educa- in former soccer players
tion, housing and crime. The SIMD is categorised into general Over a median of 18 years of follow-­up, 388 (5.1%) of 7676
population quintiles ranging from 1 (most deprived) to 5 (least former professional soccer players and 1399 (6.1%) of 23 028
deprived). matched population controls were admitted to hospital for
management of a mental health disorder (table 2). Compared
Outcomes with the population comparison group, former professional
Outcomes for former soccer players and the matched popula- soccer players had a lower risk of hospital admission for anxiety
tion comparison group were obtained by individual-­level record and stress related disorders (HR 0.37; 95% CI 0.25 to 0.55;
linkage to inpatient and day case admissions, held within Scot- p<0.001), depression (HR 0.64; 95% CI 0.44 to 0.92; p=0.02),
tish Morbidity Record SMR01 (General/Acute Inpatient and drug use disorders (HR 0.39; 95% CI 0.25 to 0.60; p<0.001),
Day Case) and Scottish Morbidity Record SMR04 (Mental alcohol use disorders (HR 0.62; 95% CI 0.51 to 0.76; p<0.001)
Health Inpatient and Day Case) datasets and to death certifi- and bipolar and affective mood disorders (HR 0.55; 95% CI
cates. For each dataset, diagnoses are coded using the Interna- 0.34 to 0.88; p=0.01) (table 3), with each outcome fulfilling the
tional Classification of Diseases (ICD-9/ICD-10). The SMR01 assumption of proportional hazards.
and SMR04 datasets were interrogated to identify admissions
where a diagnosis was recorded in the principal position as one Age at first admission with mental health disorder and
of the five most common mental health disorders among adult influence of player position
Scottish males, namely anxiety and stress related disorders, Age at first admission for depression was higher in former
depression, alcohol use disorders, drug use disorders, or bipolar professional soccer players than controls (mean 52.3±13.6 years
and affective mood disorders. Death certification datasets were vs 46.8±14.7 years; p=0.03). There was no significant differ-
interrogated for records where suicide was recorded as the cause ence in age at first admission for the remaining mental health
of death. The relevant ICD-9/ICD-10 codes for these diagnoses disorders (figure 1). Within the former professional soccer
are listed in table 1. Hospital admission and death certification player subgroup, there was no significant difference in the risk of
Russell ER, et al. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 2020;91:1256–1260. doi:10.1136/jnnp-2020-323315 1257
 Neuropsychiatry

Table 2 Characteristics of the cohort

J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry: first published as 10.1136/jnnp-2020-323315 on 21 July 2020. Downloaded from http://jnnp.bmj.com/ on April 16, 2025 by guest.
Former professional Matched population
soccer players n=7676 controls n=23 028
n (%) n (%)
Hospital admission with 388 (5.1) 1399 (6.1)
mental health diagnosis
SIMD quintile
 1 (high deprivation) 1206 (15.7) 3617 (15.7)
 2 1371 (17.9) 4112 (17.9)
 3 1449 (18.9) 4349 (18.9)

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 4 1613 (21.0) 4839 (21.0)
 5 (low deprivation) 2037 (26.5) 6111 (26.5)
Player position
 Goalkeeper 598 (7.8) NA
Figure 1 Age at first admission with mental health disorder. Age at first
admission with depression was higher in former professional soccer players
 Outfield 6024 (78.5) NA
(FSPs) than matched population controls (MPC) (52.3±13.6 (mean±SD)
 Unknown 1054 (13.7) NA
years vs 46.8±14.7 years; p=0.03). Otherwise, age at first admission for
NA, not applicable; SIMD, Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation.
the remaining mental health disorders was the same for former soccer
players and matched general population controls.
admission for common mental health disorders between former
goalkeepers and former outfield players (HR 1.43; 95% CI 0.92 neuropathologic change in a majority,4 10 13 either as the primary
to 2.23; p=0.11). dementia associated pathology or as a comorbid pathology in
context of an alternate neurodegenerative disease.10 Alongside
Suicide in former professional soccer players this, epidemiological studies describe higher neurodegenerative
Over the period of follow-­up, there were 1180 (15.4%) deaths disease mortality than anticipated among former professional
among the former professional soccer players and 3807 (16.5%) soccer players17 and former NFL American footballers.27 As
among the population comparison group. Suicide was recorded such, there are multiple levels of evidence in support of the asso-
as the cause of death in 19 (0.25%) of the 7676 former profes- ciation between contact sports participation, neurodegenerative
sional soccer players and 93 (0.40%) of the 23 028 population pathology, in particular CTE, and clinically confirmed neurode-
controls. There was no significant difference in risk of suicide generative disease.
(HR 0.69; 95% CI 0.25 to 1.87; p=0.47) or age at suicide (mean In contrast to the long acknowledged cognitive outcomes
44.6±14.3 years vs 44.1±11.7 years; p=0.89) between soccer associated with contact sports participation, symptoms of
players and their matched controls. common mental disorders and suicide were not characteristic
of the earliest accounts of former boxers with CTE.9 However,
DISCUSSION more recent reporting of non-­boxer athletes has placed greater
Our data provide evidence that, compared with a general popu- emphasis on psychiatric symptomatology in CTE. Nevertheless,
lation comparison group matched for age, sex and degree of data supporting this association are weak. Regarding suicide,
social deprivation, former professional soccer players were at autopsy studies of donated brains from former NFL American
lower risk of hospital admission for the most common mental footballers document a number who died by suicide and were
health disorders affecting the Scottish male population. Specifi- subsequently confirmed to have CTE neuropathologic change
cally, former soccer players were approximately half as likely to at autopsy.3 13 However, suicide deaths among cases with CTE
be admitted for anxiety and stress related disorders, depressive neuropathologic change were lower than among those without
disorder, alcohol use disorders, drug use disorders, and bipolar this pathology.3 Furthermore, epidemiological data reveal lower
and affective mood disorders. Furthermore, subgroup analysis rates of suicide in former NFL American footballers than might
showed no significant difference in hospital admissions for be expected based on general population datasets.15 16 Our obser-
common mental health disorder between outfield players and vations in former professional soccer players provide further
goalkeepers. Finally, we found no significant difference in deaths evidence that elite-­level contact sport participation is not associ-
due to suicide between former soccer players and matched popu- ated with higher risk of suicide in retirement, despite the docu-
lation controls. mented high neurodegenerative mortality in this population.
Autopsy studies on a wide range of former contact sports At present, no consensus criteria for the clinical diagnosis of
athletes, including former soccer players, reveal CTE CTE exist; the diagnosis requiring autopsy examination with

Table 3 Mental health admissions in former professional soccer players and matched population controls
Former professional soccer players Matched population controls
Mental health disorder n (%) n (%) HR (95% CI) P value*
Anxiety and stress related disorders 27 (0.35) 222 (0.96) 0.37 (0.25 to 0.55) <0.001
Depression 38 (0.50) 169 (0.73) 0.64 (0.44 to 0.92) 0.02
Drug use disorders 24 (0.31) 189 (0.82) 0.39 (0.25 to 0.60) <0.001
Alcohol use disorders 117 (1.52) 559 (2.43) 0.62 (0.51 to 0.76) <0.001
Bipolar and affective mood disorders 21 (0.27) 112 (0.49) 0.55 (0.34 to 0.88) 0.01
*Cox proportional hazard regression. All analyses fulfilled the assumption of proportional hazards.

1258 Russell ER, et al. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 2020;91:1256–1260. doi:10.1136/jnnp-2020-323315

 Neuropsychiatry
formal neuropathological assessment. Nevertheless, research One possible confounding factor contributing to our observa-
criteria have been proposed to aid identification of the clinical tions is that individuals pursuing a career as an elite athlete may

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correlate of CTE: traumatic encephalopathy syndrome (TES). have inherent health differences from the general population,
These recognise TES on the basis of three core clinical features, the so called ‘healthy worker’ effect.33 In other words, conceptu-
of which at least one must be present for a diagnosis to be made.7 ally, mental health issues might at some level serve as an imped-
The proposed core features of TES are cognitive, behavioural iment to pursuit of a career as an elite soccer player. Against
(such as emotionally explosive or physically violent) and mood this suggestion, available data provide no supportive evidence of
(such as overly sad or depressed).7 In addition to these core clin- lower rates of common mental health disorders in elite athletes
ical features, a broad range of supportive features are proposed, compered with general population data.34 Thus, elite athletes,
which include anxiety, paranoia and suicidality, with at least including soccer players, have been reported with higher, or
two supportive features required to diagnose TES. Thus, the similar, rates of depression35 36 and anxiety36 with contradictory

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currently proposed research criteria for the clinical diagnosis of data in relation to suicide: higher in elite power athletes37 but
TES include psychiatric symptoms as both core and supportive lower in former professional American footballers.15
features. Contrasting with these criteria for TES diagnosis, our To our knowledge, this is the first study to access diagnostic
data show no increase in hospital admissions for mental health datasets to investigate the association between participation
disorder or in suicides in a population of former professional in elite level contact sports and risk of common mental health
soccer players with known high neurodegenerative disease disorders in retirement. By accessing extensive electronic health
mortality. Indeed, we identified lower hospital admissions for records on a large cohort of soccer players and their age and
common mental health disorder in our former soccer players. As social deprivation matched population controls, our study design
such, the value of psychiatric symptomatology in TES diagnostic compensates for factors with recognised impact on mental health
criteria require further consideration. outcomes. This study does not, however, capture information on
Among the behavioural or mood features proposed as core patients managed exclusively in a primary care setting and so not
symptoms of TES are depression, anxiety and mania.7 Never- requiring review by hospital services. Mental health disorders
theless, although a range of mood symptoms are reported in managed in the community typically are less significant clini-
retrospective clinical reviews on patients whose brains have cally but more frequent than mental health disorders requiring
been donated for research,3 evidence supporting higher rates hospital admission. However, we have no reason to presume
of common mental health disorder in former contact sports that there would be a difference in diagnostic reporting or level
athletes is limited. Studies on small numbers of former soccer of healthcare accessed by former professional soccer players and
players suggest high prevalence of symptoms of common mental their matched controls.
disorder.18 19 However, issues related to multiple potential
recruitment biases, small cohort sizes and absence of matched
population control data limit the value of these observations. Summary
Accessing a comprehensive database of former professional In summary, when compared with matched general popula-
soccer players and comparing their outcomes to those of popu- tion controls, our data demonstrate that, despite known high
lation controls matched by age, sex and degree of social depri- neurodegenerative disease mortality, former professional soccer
vation we find former professional soccer players have lower players are at lower risk of hospital admission for the most
risk of common mental health disorders, in respect of hospital common mental health disorders among the Scottish male popu-
admission data. This finding is in clear contrast to assumptions lation. Furthermore, deaths as a result of suicide did not differ
based on autopsy or survey reporting but might be in line with significantly between former professional soccer players and
experience elsewhere reporting the benefits of physical activity their matched controls.
on mental health.28
Thus far, the only risk factor proposed for CTE remains expo- Twitter William Stewart @WillStewNeuro
sure to traumatic brain injury (TBI) or repetitive ‘sub-­concussive’ Contributors ERR and DFM collated the former soccer player and matched
head impacts. Purposeful head impacts through football heading population control datasets. ERR completed all the primary data analyses. ERR
and TM provided a first draft of the analyses and manuscript. ERR, TM, DFM, KS,
are considered part of normal gameplay in soccer. However,
JAM, JPP and WS edited manuscript drafts and WS collated all author comments
although studies report evidence of short-­lived cognitive impair- to the final submitted version. ERR, TM, DFM, KS, JAM, JPP and WS contributed
ment29 and elevations in blood biomarkers30 acutely after repet- to discussions on data analysis and interpretation, commented on manuscript
itive football heading and evidence of brain structural changes drafts and approved the final version. The corresponding author had full access to
over a season on imaging studies,31 the late consequences of all the data in the study and had final responsibility for the decision to submit for
publication.
cumulative exposure to heading remain unknown. We hypoth-
esised goalkeepers to be a population at lower risk of adverse Funding This work was supported by funding from: The Football Association
and Professional Footballers Association and an NHS Research Scotland Career
outcome from exposure to TBI compared with outfield players. Researcher Fellowship (WS).
In support of this, data demonstrate rates of concussion are
Competing interests None declared.
considerably lower in goalkeepers compared with outfield
players.32 Further, we have previously demonstrated lower Patient consent for publication Not required.
neurodegenerative disease morbidity in former goalkeepers than Ethics approval Approval for this study was provided by the University of Glasgow
outfield players.17 In this current study, we found no difference College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences Ethics Committee (Project Number
200160147), with protocol and data governance procedures reviewed and approved
in admissions for common mental health disorders between goal- by National Health Service Scotland’s Public Benefit and Privacy Panel for Health and
keepers and outfield players, lending support to the suggestion Social Care (reference 1718–0120).
that diagnoses of neurodegenerative disease and mental health Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
disorder are independent in former professional soccer players.
Data availability statement Data are available on reasonable request. Per Public
These data also provide no evidence to support an association Benefits and Privacy Panel (PBPP) authorisations, electronic health records data are
between exposure to head impacts and adverse mental health stored on secure server with access granted only to specified investigators after
outcomes in this population. approval. Subject to approvals from PBPP datasets should be accessible.

Russell ER, et al. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 2020;91:1256–1260. doi:10.1136/jnnp-2020-323315 1259

 Neuropsychiatry
ORCID iD 19 Gouttebarge V, Castaldelli-­Maia JM, Gorczynski P, et al. Occurrence of mental health
William Stewart http://​orcid.​org/​0000-​0003-​2199-​2582 symptoms and disorders in current and former elite athletes: a systematic review and

J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry: first published as 10.1136/jnnp-2020-323315 on 21 July 2020. Downloaded from http://jnnp.bmj.com/ on April 16, 2025 by guest.
meta-a­ nalysis. Br J Sports Med 2019;53:700–6.
20 Fernandes GS, Parekh SM, Moses J, et al. Depressive symptoms and the general health
of retired professional footballers compared with the general population in the UK: a
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