Win, place, show: creatine consumption and the price of winning.
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Adolescent↗
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Results for “Competitive Behavior”
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The communication atmosphere between physician colleagues: competitive perfectionism or supportive dialogue? A Norwegian study.
Open and supportive communication is probably one of the most important promotors of learning, coping and satisfaction at the workplace. The aim of this paper is to describe and predict the communication atmosphere between Norwegian physicians. Twenty statements describing communication, as perceived by the physicians themselves, were presented to a random sample of the members of the Norwegian Medical Association of which more than 90% of the physicians in the country are members (N = 2628). In general, this investigation indicates that the communication atmosphere among Norwegian physicians is characterised by support and mutual respect. More than half of the respondents fully agreed that communication between colleagues in the workplace is marked by solidarity, and that experienced colleagues show respect for the less experienced in both personal and professional matters. Physicians working in hospitals described the communication atmosphere as substantially more selfish and competitive than non-hospital physicians, whilst general practitioners considered the atmosphere between colleagues to be more supportive than non-specialists. In addition, high perceived stress was associated with the perception of a less supportive atmosphere. However, the strongest predictor of the communication atmosphere was clearly the physician's perceived autonomy. The comprehensive retrenchment programmes implemented in Norwegian hospitals during recent years have increased stress and restricted professional autonomy among both physicians and other occupational groups. Our findings indicate that the communication atmosphere necessary to secure continuity of knowledge within the medical profession may have been jeopardised by this process. In the long term, this may prove hazardous to the quality of medical care.
Adult↗
Psychological aspects of serious head injury in the competitive athlete.
In addition to the physical aspects of athletic injury, there are psychological aspects to consider. These are important during all phases of injury management: the acute injury, the rehabilitative process, and the return-to-play progression. Emotional disturbances are often associated with mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) both directly and indirectly. Evaluating the athlete with mTBI can be made more difficult by the need to distinguish the physical and the emotional effects of injury and to differentiate the emotional factors directly related to the brain injury from those that arise indirectly (eg, reaction to being held out of play). This article discusses some of the psychological issues related to evaluating the head injured athlete.
Adaptation, Psychological↗
Medical issues associated with international competition. Guidelines for the traveling physician.
This article describes the concerns and duties of the team physician while traveling for international competition. The medical preparedness and social interaction required of the team physician are addressed.
Competitive Behavior↗
The physiology and biomechanics of competitive swimming.
Fast swimming, either in the pool, in open water swimming, or in water polo and synchronized swimming, requires maximizing the efficiencies with which the human body can move through a liquid medium. A multitude of factors can affect the ability to swim fast as well as the final outcome. Physiology and biomechanics are the present tools used by sports scientists to determine which factors are important to fast swimming and, subsequently, to determine how the swimmer may maximize these factors to improve performance.
Biomechanical Phenomena↗
Injuries in competitive swimming.
Competitive swimming is commonly thought to be an injury-free sport. Traumatic and overuse injuries do occur, especially if one includes accidents occurring to both athletes and spectators, and accidents resulting from some of the newer diving and starting techniques. United States Swimming, Incorporated, the national governing body for competitive swimming, and provider of insurance coverage for most of the swimming clubs in the United States, keeps track of reported injuries to club members, and requires specific safety accreditation for member coaches. These data provide an informative view on injuries to competitive swimmers.
Athletic Injuries↗
The basics of competitive diving and its injuries.
This article reviews the history of competitive springboard and platform diving, the basic rules of competition, and the epidemiology and pathomechanics of diving injuries, with reference to the specific parts of the dive. Injuries are more commonly associated with the entry phase of the dive, and are more frequently associated with back and reverse dives, and with platform rather than springboard diving. The most frequently injured areas are the wrist, shoulder, and lumbar spine. It is crucial that treating medical professionals understand the physical demands of the sport and the pathogenesis of injury to affect successful treatment and prevention strategies, and to determine safe return to participation after injury.
Athletic Injuries↗
Competitive water polo. Upper extremity injuries.
Water polo is a contact sport combining the skills of swimming, swim conditioning, throwing and, occasionally, the elements of wrestling and boxing. As such, the athletes frequently sustain upper extremity injuries involving the shoulder, the elbow, or the hand and fingers; moreover, injuries may result from either overuse or acute trauma. Successful treatment of these injuries requires an understanding of the peculiarities of the game and the likely mechanisms of injury, and the experience to properly recognize when they occur.
Arm Injuries↗
The basics of synchronized swimming and its injuries.
Synchronized swimming is a complex, physically demanding sport. It is a challenging and interesting sport for the sports medicine clinician. There is opportunity for involvement in program development and in the treatment of medical illness and injury. There is also great potential for clinical research in synchronized swimming because of the paucity of published literature. Greater understanding of the competitive structure, training requirements, and common medical presentations facilitate the management of synchronized swimmers.
Athletic Injuries↗
Shoulder injuries in competitive swimmers.
Sports medicine literature often refers to "swimmer's shoulder." Increasingly, however, it is evident that swimmer's shoulder is a spectrum of maladies whose underlying origins may be incidental to athletic activity. Those dealing with the treatment of swimmers should have a thorough understanding of the differential diagnosis of the shoulder, the age range of competitive swimmers, and the effects of the aging process, and age-related disease processes and should consider the possibilities of neoplasm, degenerative diseases, and acquired processes such as arthritis or metabolic diseases.
Athletic Injuries↗
Injuries and considerations in masters aquatics sports.
Masters level athletes in all aquatic sports challenge healthcare professionals, providing them with many opportunities to test their sports medicine training. Along with sports-specific injuries, the medical professional must factor in physiologic differences due to aging and even the older athlete's basic motivation to pursue the sport--which differs greatly from that of younger swimmers. Organized Masters programs, complete with national and international championships, are growing in Masters Diving, Masters Synchronized Swimming, Masters Swimming, and Masters Water Polo.
Aging↗
[Dialog among societies].
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Allergy and Immunology↗
Competition alters the perception of noxious stimuli in male and female athletes.
The ability of athletes to continue to compete despite sustaining painful injury is often interpreted as evidence for the activation of endogenous analgesia mechanisms. However, alterations in perception of noxious stimuli during competition have not yet been systematically investigated. This experiment evaluated experimental pain sensitivity in male and female athletes 2 days before, immediately following, and 2 days after competition. Non-athlete controls were evaluated at the same intervals. Competition dramatically reduced pain report on the cold-pressor test in all athletes. Withdrawal latencies to noxious heat also were altered by competition, with finger withdrawal latency decreasing and arm withdrawal latency increasing in most athletes. No changes in pain report were observed across time in non-athlete controls. Competition induces both hyperalgesic and analgesic states that are dependent on the body region tested and pain assessment methodology used.
Adult↗
Anticipatory cortisol, testosterone and psychological responses to judo competition in young men.
This study compares the anticipatory hormonal and psychological responses of 17 male judo players to an official competition with the data obtained during eight resting sessions carried out at the same time of day, throughout an entire sports season. Testosterone (T) and cortisol (C) levels were determined 1 h and 30 min before competition, and mood, anxiety and expectancies were also evaluated. C levels and anxiety scores were concurrently higher before the contest than in resting conditions; however, non-significant correlations between them were found. The anticipatory T response was not significant for the whole group. However, one group of subjects did display T increases, higher C levels, and higher motivation to win scores than the other group. Furthermore, this group also obtained a better outcome. Thus, this hormonal pattern and its relationships with psychological variables suggest an adaptive psychobiological response to a competition. Results are discussed in the context that neuroendocrine response to competition is associated with cognitive appraisal.
Adaptation, Psychological↗
Effects of competition and its outcome on serum testosterone, cortisol and prolactin.
In various species, competitive encounters influence hormonal responses in a different way depending on their outcome, victory or defeat. This study aimed to investigate the effects of sports competition and its outcome on hormonal response, comparing it with those displayed in situations involving non-effort and non-competitive effort. To this end, serum testosterone (T), cortisol (C) and prolactin (PRL) were measured in 26 judoists who participated in three sessions (control, judo fight and ergometry). The relationship between hormonal changes and psychological variables before and after the fight were also analysed. Our results showed a hormonal response to competition, which was especially characterized by an anticipatory rise of T and C. Depending on outcome, significant higher C levels were found in winners in comparison to losers through all the competition but not in T or PRL, both groups expending a similar physical effort. Furthermore, similar hormonal responses to the fight and to a non-competitive effort with the same caloric cost were found, other than with PRL. Winners showed a higher appraisal of their performance and satisfaction with the outcome, and perceived themselves as having more ability to win than losers, although there were no significant differences in motivation to win. Finally, the relationships found between T changes in competition and motivation to win, as well as between C response and self-efficacy suggest that in humans hormonal response to competition is not a direct consequence of winning and losing but rather is mediated by complex psychological processes.
Adult↗
Differential effects of alcohol, cocaine, and opioid abuse on event-related potentials recorded during a response competition task.
The present study examined the abilities of cocaine-dependent and opioid-dependent patients and healthy, non-dependent volunteers to execute a task requiring rapid shifts in cognitive set. Sixty-six residential treatment program patients, characterized by a history of either cocaine (n=37) or opioid (n=29) dependence, and 18 non-drug-dependent community volunteers were evaluated. The task involved the execution of right- or left-hand button press responses that were either spatially-compatible or incompatible with a directional cue. Performance and event-related electroencephalographic (EEG) activity were recorded throughout the task. Analyses revealed that button press responses were significantly slower and less accurate for all of the groups when spatial conflict was introduced. The amplitude of a slow EEG potential (SP), emerging approximately 500 ms after stimulus onset, showed the normal effect of spatial conflict for the opioid-dependent and non-dependent groups, but not for subjects in the cocaine-dependent group. Correlational analyses restricted to data from the cocaine-dependent group showed that this abnormal SP amplitude was not related to the quantity, frequency, or recency of their cocaine use; it only correlated with their comorbid alcohol use. The results of the major analyses, in combination with the results of a neuroanatomical localization algorithm applied to the SP data, suggest that comorbid alcohol use disrupts normal task-related activation of the anterior cingulate, cerebellum, and prefrontal cortex. The present results have implications for the assessment of specific cognitive problems which could foster drug abuse.
Adult↗
Structural features of the athlete heart as defined by echocardiography.
The morphologic concepts of the "athlete heart" have been enhanced and clarified over the last 10 years by virtue of M-mode echocardiographic studies performed on more than 1,000 competitive athletes. Long-term athletic training produces relatively mild but predictable alterations in cardiac structure that result in an increase in calculated left ventricular mass. This increase in mass observed in highly trained athletes is due to a mild increase in either transverse end-diastolic dimension of the left ventricle or left ventricular wall thickness, or both. Cardiac dimensions in athletes compared with matched control subjects show increases of about 10% for left ventricular end-diastolic dimension, about 15 to 20% for wall thickness and about 45% for calculated left ventricular mass. Furthermore, there is evidence that the modest degree of "physiologic" left ventricular hypertrophy (both the cavity dilation and wall thickening) observed in athletes is dynamic in nature, that is, it may develop rapidly within weeks or months after the initiation of vigorous conditioning and may be reversed in a similar time period after the cessation of training. Several echocardiographic studies also suggest that the precise alterations in cardiac structure associated with training may differ depending on the type of athletic activity undertaken (that is, whether training is primarily dynamic [isotonic] or static [isometric]). Although the ventricular septal to free wall thickness ratio (on M-mode echocardiogram) is almost always within normal limits (less than 1.3), occasionally an athlete will show mild asymmetric thickening of the anterior basal septum (usually 13 to 15 mm). This circumstance may mimic certain pathologic conditions characterized by primary left ventricular hypertrophy such as nonobstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. The long-term significance of increased left ventricular mass in trained athletes has not been conclusively defined. However, there is no evidence at this time suggesting that this form of hypertrophy is itself deleterious to the athlete or predisposes to (or prevents) the natural occurrence of cardiovascular disease later in life.
Adolescent↗
Causes of sudden death in competitive athletes.
Cardiovascular diseases responsible for sudden unexpected death in highly conditioned athletes are largely related to the age of the patient. In most young competitive athletes (less than 35 years of age) sudden death is due to congenital cardiovascular disease. Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy appears to be the most common cause of such deaths, accounting for about half of the sudden deaths in young athletes. Other cardiovascular abnormalities that appear to be less frequent but important causes of sudden death in young athletes include congenital coronary artery anomalies, ruptured aorta (due to cystic medial necrosis), idiopathic left ventricular hypertrophy and coronary artery atherosclerosis. Diseases that appear to be very uncommon causes of sudden death include myocarditis, mitral valve prolapse, aortic valve stenosis and sarcoidosis. Cardiovascular disease in young athletes is usually unsuspected during life, and most athletes who die suddenly have experienced no cardiac symptoms. In only about 25% of those competitive athletes who die suddenly is underlying cardiovascular disease detected or suspected before participation and rarely is the correct clinical diagnosis made. In contrast, in older athletes (greater than or equal to 35 years of age) sudden death is usually due to coronary artery disease, and rarely results from congenital heart disease.
Adolescent↗