Symptoms
| Fatigue | Insomnia | Loss of appetite |
| Depression | Irritability | Weight loss |
| Slow or fast heart beat (bradycardia or tachycardia) | Agitation | Lack of mental concentration |
| Loss of motivation or interest | Decreased self-confidence | Heavy, sore, stiff muscles |
| Hypertension (e.g. high blood pressure) | Anxiety | Restlessness |
| Sleep disturbances | Nausea | Frequent illness |
Diagnosis
The diagnosis of overtraining syndrome/burnout should only be made by a qualified health care professional and only after the taking a thorough history and recognition of nonspecific and varied symptomatology:
History
- Decreased performance persisting despite weeks to months of recovery
- Mood disturbances
- Lack of signs/symptoms or diagnosis of other possible causes of underperformance
- Lack of enjoyment participating in sport
- Inadequate nutrional and hydration intake
Presence of potential triggers, including
- increased training load with adequate recovery
- monotony of training
- excessive number of competitions
- sleep disturbance
- stressors in family life (parental pressure)
- stressors in sporting life (coaching pressure and travel demands)
- previous illness.
Testing (if indicated by history)
- consider laboratory studies (i.e. complete blood count (CBC), comprehensive metabolic panel, etc.)
- Profile of Mood States (POMS)(a psychometric tool for a global measure of mood, tension, depression, anger, vigor, fatique, and confusion).
Treatment
Treatment depends on the causes (e.g. etiology) of the burnout in the individual athlete:
- treat any diagnosed organic disease appropriately
- rest or relative rest an important component
- consider whether prevention of dropout is possible by changing adult-controlled factors
- efforts should be made to develop realistic but positive perceptions of competence
- consider consultation with sports pyschologist because more of a psychological component to burnout in children than in adults
- initial treatment of depression, anxiety, and sleep disturbances without drugs, and implementation of drug therapy only with appropriate professional guidance.
Source:
DiFiori JP, Benjamin HJ, Brenner J, Gregory A, Jayanthi N, Landry GL, Luke A. Overuse Injuries and Burnout in Youth Sports: A Position Statement from the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine. Clin J Sports Med. 2014;24(1):3-20.
Most recently reviewed December 4, 2015
