Psychosocial Factors Involved in Sports Medicine Injuries Print CE Course

The course components are as follows:

• Summaries and evidence-based application of 20 articles from sports medicine journals
• Continuing education exam (accessed online)

Psychosocial Factors Involved in Sports Medicine Injuries CE Course examines peer-reviewed evidence regarding the psychosocial aspects of injury recovery. You’ll find information on assessing the mental health of patients and how to recognize abnormal social, emotional, and mental behaviors. You’ll be exposed to psychosocial techniques and interventions to motivate patients during their recovery period and help them overcome fear of reinjury, cope with the pressures of competition, and perform at their best when they return to play. Multiple articles specifically address concussions and ACL injuries.

This course features 20 articles that have been reviewed by editors Jeffrey Driban, PhD, ATC, and Stephen Thomas, PhD, ATC. The article summaries are followed by an exam containing 100 questions.

Learning Objectives
After completing this course, you will be able to do the following:

• Implement psychosocial strategies to improve rehabilitation outcomes.
• Explain how specific psychosocial factors influence the risk of injury.
• Assess and identify psychosocial factors that influence the recovery of concussions.
• Explain how psychosocial factors influence return to sport following injury.

Audience

A continuing education course for athletic trainers, coaches, physical therapists, physicians, and medical technicians.

Article 1. Athletes Rely on Athletic Trainers for Social Support Following Injury
Article 2. Should Athletic Trainers Add Anxiety Surveys to Preseason Baseline Testing?
Article 3. Mind Over Sports Injury: Mindfulness Exercises Could Prevent Injury
Article 4. Nothing to Fear but Fear Itself: Psychological Factors Related to Return to Sport After Injury
Article 5. Fear of Reinjury in People Who Have Returned to Sport Following ACL Reconstruction
Article 6. Fear and Exercise Importance in Returning From ACL Injury
Article 7. Psychological Insight Into ACL Recovery
Article 8. Treat the Whole Patient, Not Just the Injury
Article 9. Want Better Clinical Outcomes? Try to Motivate Your Patient
Article 10. Concussed Athletes Cope Differently
Article 11. Beliefs Become Reality: A Patient’s Beliefs About Rest May Influence Their Concussion Recovery
Article 12. Could Depression Be an Acute Condition Following Concussion?
Article 13. More Reasons to Think About Suicide Risk Among Our High School Athletes
Article 14. High School Student Suicidality Rate Is Already Too High, but Concussions Make It Worse
Article 15. Therapist-Directed Cognitive Rehabilitation Improved Functional Cognitive Outcomes
Article 16. Better Attitudes May Improve Concussion Reporting Habits
Article 17. Preliminary Baseline ImPACT Data for Those With ADHD or Learning Disabilities
Article 18. Psychological Outcomes After a False Positive ECG
Article 19. Many NCAA Clinicians Fail to Screen Mental Health
Article 20. The Power of the Mind May Be Underutilized

Jeffrey B. Driban, PhD, ATC, CSCS, is an assistant professor in the division of rheumatology at Tufts University School of Medicine and a member of the special and scientific staff at Tufts Medical Center. The goal of his research is to explore novel biochemical and imaging markers to gain a better understanding of osteoarthritis pathophysiology and potential disease phenotypes.

Driban received his bachelor’s degree in athletic training from the University of Delaware. During his doctoral training at Temple University, he focused on various aspects of osteoarthritis (e.g., early pathophysiology in animal models, biochemical markers in joint fluid, systematic reviews of risk factors for osteoarthritis, survey of medication use among patients with osteoarthritis). In January 2010, he began a postdoctoral research fellowship in the division of rheumatology at Tufts Medical Center, where he continued his focus on osteoarthritis and learned new assessment strategies in magnetic resonance imaging.

Stephen Thomas, PhD, ATC, is an assistant professor at Temple University. Thomas received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in athletic training from Temple University. He then received his PhD in biomechanics and movement science from the University of Delaware. Before working at Neumann University, Thomas performed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania in the department of orthopedic surgery and biomedical engineering, where he received a Ruth L. Kirschstein Research Grant from the National Institutes of Health. He has served on several national committees and is the chair of the research committee for the American Society of Shoulder and Elbow Therapists.

Thomas continues to be active in the area of research, participating as a manuscript reviewer for several peer-reviewed journals. He is on the executive board for Athletic Training and Sports Health Care. He also was an ad hoc grant reviewer for the Eastern Athletic Trainers’ Association (EATA) and is the cofounder of Sports Medicine Research, a website dedicated to the summary of sports medicine research. Thomas has numerous peer-reviewed publications and abstracts in the areas of shoulder adaptations from overhead throwing and the basic science of rotator cuff injury and healing. He has also had several invited lectures throughout the United States in the area of overhead throwing.