Scientists are trying to find cure for rare condition only darts players get

Scientists want to get to the bottom of a psychological condition that has impacted a number of high-profile darts players.

Earlier this month, Nathan Aspinall opened up on his ongoing battle with dartitis; a mental condition where the brain stops a player from being able to release a dart at the right time.

The condition has affected many tour professionals over the years, including Mark Webster, Berry van Peer and the late Eric Bristow, whose career was drastically cut short by dartitis.

It started for Aspinall in a 2023 Premier League match against Peter Wright. He was 4-0 up and just two legs from victory when he started to lose control of his darts.

Aspinall ended up losing the game 6-5. "All of a sudden out of nowhere I couldn't throw my effing dart," Aspinall explained on Sky Sports' Game of Throws:Inside Darts documentary.

"I just couldn't let it go. It ended up getting worse and worse and worse to the point where I was in tears.

"Because I knew what it was. The dreaded D-word that no darts player ever wants to hear or get. Something called dartitis. It's horrific, no one ever wants to get it. Not many people come back from it."

Aspinall added: "It's basically the fear of missing. There's somewhere deep in the back of your head saying 'you're going to miss this' so you stop."

The Stockport-born world number 12, who has previously described that night as the lowest point of his darting career, added: "I lost the game 6-5, I went upstairs after the game and I was in the toilet and I was absolutely smashing ten lumps of s*** out of the hand dryer. I lost my head."

Scientists are actively trying to find a cure for the rare condition, according to a new report from the Star.

Dr Linda Duffy, a former women's darts player who is now a professor of psychology at Middlesex University, suffered from dartisis and says the condition is “in the absence of any physical trauma, it’s purely psychological”.

She added: “I used to combat it with extra practice. It was heard of back in the day, but not many people spoke about it.”

The report goes on to suggest that some players are receiving hypnotherapy sessions to beat the condition. Here, they are then “hit with all the confidence work and motivation".

Image credit: Getty

Duffy, meanwhile, has opted to give her patients cognitive behavioural therapy, which reframes it as 'a challenge they need to overcome'.