Clinical issues and treatment strategies in stress-oriented athletes.

Psychological stress disorders in athletes have become an increasingly important area of study within the last decade as a result of added interest in sports psychology. Scientific inquiry into the impact of life stress events on the health of athletes has only recently been the focus of clinical study. At the forefront of today's understanding of stressful events and its impact on the human organism are a variety of theories which argue either that: stress lies within the environmental input; that it is the cognitive appraisal; that it lies toward environmental input; or that it is a multivariant, multiprocess system that views no single variable or process as the aetiology or psychopathology in the organism. Within the framework of sports medicine, it is seen rather as a complex system of variables that address the environment, the personality of the athlete and the impact of stressful life events on both.