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Victor Schwartz, MD, Senior Associate Dean for Wellness and Student Life, was featured in an article by Forbes discussing how the positive impact of working with a sports psychiatrist can have on an athlete’s well-being. As a mental health expert and consultant to the NBA’s Mind Health Program, NCAA, USOPC, and NFL, Dr. Schwartz describes the role of sports psychiatrists in assisting athlete patients and highlights what sets them apart from traditional psychiatrists.
“Sports psychiatrists can also help address team and interpersonal dynamics, which can be intense and complicated in highly competitive settings and can help teams establish systems of care that address athletes’ special needs successfully,” says Dr. Schwartz.
The section where Dr. Schwartz is quoted in the article appears below, and a full PDF can be accessed here.
Section featuring Dr. Schwartz’s remarks:
Sports Psychiatry: A Game-Changing Force For Athlete Mental Health
June 8, 2024
Sports psychiatrists provide mental health assessments and diagnoses in the athlete population (commonly mood disorders, anxiety disorders, ADHD, substance use disorders, and eating disorders). “The accurate assessment of problems and diagnoses need to take into account the unique stressors and contours of life of the elite athlete,” says Victor Schwartz, M.D., Senior Associate Dean for Wellness and Student Life at CUNY School of Medicine. Once an assessment is completed, the treatment may include using medications, offering psychotherapy, and recommending various lifestyle modifications. “Treatment decisions need to incorporate questions of flexibility of care, timing of medication trials, and particular sensitivity to medication effects, which might be innocuous in the general population but very disruptive to elite athletes,” says Schwartz. I have seen how detrimental it can be to have a psychiatrist working with an athlete who is not certified or well-versed in sports psychiatry, as there are many intricacies to consider such as controlled substance policies and the potential effects of medications on performance.
Sports psychiatrists provide support and education to athletes, coaching staff, family, agents, and others involved in supporting athletes. “Sports psychiatrists can also help address team and interpersonal dynamics, which can be intense and complicated in highly competitive settings and can help teams establish systems of care that address athletes’ special needs successfully,” says Schwartz, who has been consulting for several years for the NBA’s Mind Health Program as well as the NCAA, USOPC, and NFL.