The current study aims to examine the prevalence rates and the relationship of symptoms of depression, anxiety, and comorbid depression/anxiety with neurocognitive performance in college athletes at baseline. We hypothesized a priori that the mood disturbance groups would perform worse than healthy controls, with the comorbid group performing worst overall.

Eight hundred and thirty-one (M = 620, F = 211) collegiate athletes completed a comprehensive neuropsychological test battery at baseline which included self-report measures of anxiety and depression. Athletes were separated into four groups [Healthy Control (HC) (n = 578), Depressive Symptoms Only (n = 137), Anxiety Symptoms Only (n = 54), and Comorbid Depressive/Anxiety Symptoms (n = 62)] based on their anxiety and depression scores. Athletes’ neurocognitive functioning was analyzed via Z score composites of Attention/Processing Speed and Memory.

One-way analysis of variance revealed that, compared to HC athletes, the comorbid group performed significantly worse on measures of Attention/Processing Speed but not Memory. However, those in the depressive symptoms only and anxiety symptoms only groups were not significantly different from one another or the HC group on neurocognitive outcomes. Chi-square analyses revealed that a significantly greater proportion of athletes in all three affective groups were neurocognitively impaired compared to the HC group.

These results demonstrate that collegiate athletes with comorbid depressive/anxiety symptoms should be identified, as their poorer cognitive performance at baseline could complicate post-concussion interpretation. Thus, assessing for mood disturbance at baseline is essential to obtain an accurate measurement of baseline functioning. Further, given the negative health outcomes associated with affective symptomatology, especially comorbidities, it is important to provide care as appropriate.

Sleep deprivation is common among both college students and athletes and has been correlated with negative health outcomes, including worse cognition. As such, the current study sought to examine the relationship between sleep difficulties and self-reported symptoms and objective neuropsychological performance at baseline and post-concussion in collegiate athletes.

Seven hundred seventy-two collegiate athletes completed a comprehensive neuropsychological test battery at baseline and/or post-concussion. Athletes were separated into two groups based on the amount of sleep the night prior to testing. The sleep duration cutoffs for these group were empirically determined by sample mean and standard deviation (M = 7.07, SD = 1.29).

Compared with athletes getting sufficient sleep, those getting insufficient sleep the night prior to baseline reported significantly more overall symptoms and more symptoms from each of the five symptom clusters of the Post-Concussion Symptom Scale. However, there were no significant differences on objective performance indices. Secondly, there were no significant differences on any of the outcome measures, except for sleep symptoms and headache, between athletes getting insufficient sleep at baseline and those getting sufficient sleep post-concussion.

Overall, the effect of insufficient sleep at baseline can make an athlete appear similar to a concussed athlete with sufficient sleep. As such, athletes completing a baseline assessment following insufficient sleep could be underperforming cognitively and reporting elevated symptoms that would skew post-concussion comparisons. Therefore, there may need to be consideration of prior night’s sleep when determining whether a baseline can be used as a valid comparison.