About 60-80% of long-term injured athletes pass rehabilitation without psychological or physical problems. Research suggests a need for controlled outcome studies in order to determine the effectiveness of interventions. The current study tested the effectiveness of a short-term intervention program on injured athletes with a positive rehabilitation prospect. Subjects were 58 long-term injured patients on competitive level with traumatic injuries. Fourteen were randomly selected into an experimental group. Of this, 9 (age 25.2) were rated by a physiotherapist as initially having a positive rehabilitation prospect and were physically restored at the end of rehabilitation. In the control group, 34 of 44 (age 22.2) meet the same criteria as the experiment group. A three-session intervention program consisting of stress-management, and cognitive control goal-setting training, and relaxation/guided imagery was employed. Four tests were used, Mood Adjective Check-List (MACL) in the beginning and in the middle, MACL, Diagnostic Check-List 2 (DCL:2) and Patients Self-Rating Questionnaire (PSQ) at the end.

The experimental group received higher overall scores using ANOVA-analyses on the MACL variable "Hedonic tone" at the second and third test (p=.024), (p=.009) and "Security" at the second test (p=.043) as compared to the control group. The PSQ-test showed that the experimental group to a higher extend rated themselves as physically restored at the third test (p=.044). In addition, the physiotherapist (DCL:2) rated the group as having significantly better physical status (p=.018). No differences appeared concerning the intervention programs.

Results indicates that a short-term psychological intervention have an elevating effect on the experimental groups mood-level. Possibly leading to high scores in terms of self-rated physical status at the end of rehabilitation. It is concluded that continued research is needed to evaluate the effectiveness of short-term intervention.