Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among Icelandic emergency responders

Abstract

Emergency responders report various mental health issues because of work-related exposures, with one of the most common complaints being post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This study had four specific aims. First, assess the prevalence of work-related traumatic events over the past 12 months. Second, examine if prevalence of probable PTSD diagnosis and severity of PTSD symptoms (PTSS) based on the PCL-5 differed between emergency groups. Third, explore how troubling the PTSS were in everyday life. Fourth, to determine if social support from significant others, family, friends and co-workers will be associated with lower levels of PTSS. This was assessed by self-report questionnaire sent via e-mail, and the sample included 234 police officers, 168 firefighters/ ambulance personnel and 133 core volunteers. The main findings were that 40% of emergency responders had experienced work-related traumatic events in the past year. Of the police officers, 17.3% met the cut-off point criteria for probable PTSD diagnosis, which was significantly higher than for firefighters/ambulance personnel (7.7%) and core volunteers (11.6%). Core volunteers were also significantly higher than firefighters/ ambulance personnel. The groups also differed in severity of PTSS, with police officers reporting higher levels of PTSS than firefighters/ambulance personnel. For all emergency groups, social support from co-workers was associated with lower levels of PTSS whereas work-related traumatic events were associated with higher levels of PTSS. Lastly, being single and working in rural settings was associated with higher levels of PTSS for police officers. These results underscore the importance of providing empirically effective interventions to reduce the impact of PTSS.Keywords: emergency responders, PTSD, PTSS, traumatic event, social support