Injuries in Athletics: Causes and Consequences

Book excerpt: Over the past decade, the scientific information on psychology of injury has increased considerably. Despite dramatic advances in physical education of coaches, field of medicine, athletic training, and physical therapy, the sport-related traumatic injuries is our major concern. Athletic injuries, both single and multiple, have a tendency to grow dramatically. Accordingly, prevention of sport-related injuries is a major challenge facing the sport medicine world today. The purpose of this book is to accumulate the latest development in psychological analyses, evaluation, and management of sport-related injuries, including traumatic brain injuries. No two traumatic injuries are alike in mechanism, symptoms, or symptoms resolution. There is still no agreement upon psychological diagnosis and there is no known comprehensive treatment for sport-related injuries for regaining pre-injury status. Physical symptoms resolution is not an indication of "psychological trauma" resolution.