The initial searches were based on the following keywords: 1. Psychological recovery AND athletic injury or sports injury; A total of 991 relevant articles were identified through these search terms. We excluded articles that were published prior to the year 2000 (n = 311) and conducted second round searches among the remaining 680 articles using the following 10 search terms: “intervention”, “interv*”, “cognitive therapy”, “behavior* therapy”, “relaxation”, “goal-setting”, “guided imagery”, “acceptance”, “commitment”, “ACT” (acceptance and commitment therapy). A total of 157 relevant articles remained after the second round search. We reviewed the titles

and abstracts of the 157 articles and further www.selleckchem.com/products/GDC-0941.html excluded 128 studies that did not report the study population of interest

or the outcome of interest. All three authors reviewed the remaining 29 articles for relevance and the agreement was reached to exclude 22 articles that did not meet the study inclusion criteria based on the type of participants, intervention, or outcome measures. Thus, the remaining seven articles that met the study inclusion criteria regarding the type of participants, intervention, and outcome measures were included ( Fig. 1). For the purposes of this review, two publications, which reported www.selleckchem.com/products/Romidepsin-FK228.html the findings of a single study, are treated as one study. The seven included articles published on six studies were evenly divided see more between three research designs (Table 1). Two studies (33%) included RCTs.35 and 36 Evans and

Hardy37 included an in-depth qualitative follow-up after completion of the initial RCT. Two studies used before and after study designs.38 and 39 Two studies were case study designs.40 and 41 Two studies (33%) were conducted in Australia and one study (17%) in each the USA, England, Wales, and Sweden. All six studies included competitive athletes as study participants and two studies also included recreational level athletes.35, 36 and 37 All studies included adult participants with one study also including 17-year-old minors.36 Participants in the studies ranged from age 17 to 50. Four studies (66%) recruited men and women approximately evenly, while two additional studies (33%) recruited many more male participants than female participants. Three studies (50%) recruited only athletes with anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries.35, 40 and 41 Three studies (50%) recruited athletes with any long-term injury.36, 37, 38 and 39 Knee injuries, including ACL injuries, were the most common injury. Other injuries included in these studies were neck, shoulder, leg, and/or foot injuries. All six studies recruited participants who played a variety of sports with football (soccer) as the most common sport played, followed by basketball, rugby, skiing, and tennis.