Is There an Increase in Depressive Symptoms Associated with the COVID-19 Pandemic in NCAA Athletes, and Does it Differ with a History of Concussion?

Among athletes, concussions have been reported to have effects on neurocognitive and neuropsychological functioning. However, findings seem to be quite mixed as to what the effects of concussion are, and to what extent these effects occur. Separately, during the past four years, the COVID-19 pandemic has wrought society-wide changes that have impacted mental health in young adults. The purpose of this study is to examine the association between depressive symptoms and the COVID-19 pandemic, and to examine if concussion history potentially moderates this relationship among former National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) athletes. 537 participants completed the Brief Symptom Inventory-18 (BSI-18) before the onset of the pandemic (pre-COVID group), and 3405 participants completed the BSI-18 during the pandemic (COVID group). Concussion history was collected for all participants before they left college. Findings showed that levels of depressive symptoms were not significantly associated with either COVID grouping (pre-COVID versus COVID), nor concussion history (no concussion history versus presence of concussion history). Additionally, levels of depressive symptoms were not significantly associated with the interaction of the two. Taken together, findings suggest that these factors (the COVID-19 pandemic and concussion history) may not be significant enough to result in more depressive symptoms long term in former NCAA athletes, but that the effects of concussion may be manifesting in other ways that were unexplored in this study. This may be important to examine when treating patients and designing recovery plans.