Fight Medicine Research Institute

Mental health and PTSD

Depression, anxiety, trauma, and the pressure to hide all three. A fighter’s mind is part of fighter safety.

A priority states what Fight Medicine Research Institute wants answered and why. It is not a study, a finding or a recommendation. Any study must first pass scientific review and independent ethics review under policy R-01.

Why it matters

Fighting asks a person to accept pain, risk, public loss and long stretches alone with the work. Asking for help can feel like giving an opponent an opening.

Fight Medicine Research Institute treats mental health, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), as a safety question on the same footing as a cut or a concussion. The research has to use tools that have been tested in fighters.

Research questions

  • How common are depressive symptoms, anxiety and post-traumatic stress among active and retired fighters, measured with tools tested in fighters?
  • What in a fighter’s career raises or lowers the risk: injury, losses, weight cutting, money, isolation, retirement?
  • What keeps fighters from asking for help, and what kind of help do they accept?
  • Which protective factors can be trained or supported?

In the research library

The library holds 17 records on this priority. None is a study of post-traumatic stress disorder in fighters.