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MOST football fans will recognise the physical symptoms of watching
their countrymen play in the World Cup matches – perhaps a sweaty palm or
racing heartbeat as they score a goal. But soccer fanatics may be surprised
by the results of a recent study in Scotland (British Journal of Psychiatry,
vol 156, p 475) that examines changes in mental behaviour as a nation watches
its heroes battle for recognition on the pitch. Researchers at the Royal
Infirmary of Edinburgh have looked into the rate at which patients come
to the hospital with various emergency psychiatric disorders, before, during
and after the last three World Cup tournaments.

The researchers tracked patients for four weeks either side of the competitions,
to find out whether results differed in World Cup years compared with intervening
years. Scotland competed in the past three finals, in 1978, 1982 and 1986.

They found more patients than they expected coming to the hospital before
the tournaments, but the rate abated substantially during the finals and
over the subsequent eight weeks. The effect was more marked in men: 14 per
cent fewer came to the hospital in the eight weeks after the tournaments
than before, while 12 per cent fewer came in World Cup years than in the
intervening years. The number of women coming to the hospital in the eight
weeks after the tournaments fell by only 1 per cent.

But focusing on years rather than the weeks around the finals, the annual
totals for all psychiatric disorders – including alcoholism, schizophrenia,
affective psychosis and neurosis – differed by 2 per cent or less in the
World Cup years they examined. The researchers see this as evidence that
the frequency with which patients report to the hospital is generally stable
over all of the years they considered.

The researchers conclude that the anticipation and increasing excitement
in the weeks leading up to an important event represent a stress on the
mentally vulnerable. They are less certain of the reason for the reduction
in emergency psychiatric disorders during and after the competitions, but
they say that the decrease is unlikely to be directly attributable to football
because both sexes are affected for several months after the final whistle
.

Nevertheless, they believe the World Cup provides one of the most powerful
of very few outlets for ‘a wide and acceptable expression of Scottish nationhood’.
They suggest that the common interest and endeavour of the football matches,
fused with a surge of nationalism, enhances social cohesion. That the effect
should be more apparent in the mentally ill suggests complex changes in
‘help-seeking’ among people in crisis, the researchers argue. They think
that the competition may make people less prone to introspection or despair,
and more likely to tolerate and cope with any crises.

The number of men coming forward with alcoholism during the matches
rose by 19 per cent during the finals. This ‘surely reflects a direct, immediate
consequence of excessive alcohol consumption at such times. The association
of Scotsmen and alcohol with football matches ought to come as no surprise,’
the researchers say – clearly unable to resist a gentle dig at their compatriots.