1. Gender and Age Differences in Trauma and PTSD Among Dutch Treatment-Seeking Police Officers.
- Author
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van der Meer, Christianne A. I., Bakker, Anne, Smit, Annika S., van Buschbach, Susanne, den Dekker, Melissa, Westerveld, Gré J., Hutter, Renée C., Gersons, Berthold P. R., and Olff, Miranda
- Subjects
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POST-traumatic stress disorder , *DIAGNOSIS of post-traumatic stress disorder , *OCCUPATIONAL diseases , *AGE distribution , *LIFE change events , *POLICE psychology , *SEX distribution , *PSYCHOLOGICAL stress , *PSYCHOLOGICAL factors , *PSYCHOLOGY ,OCCUPATIONAL disease diagnosis - Abstract
Little is known about how age and gender are associated with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and traumatic experiences in treatment-seeking police offers. In this study, we examined 967 diagnostic files of police officers seeking treatment for PTSD. Six hundred twelve (63%) of the referred police officers were diagnosed with PTSD (n = 560) or partial PTSD (n = 52). Police officers reported on average 19.5 different types of traumatic events (range 1-43). Those who experienced a greater variety of traumatic events suffered from more PTSD symptoms. Also, women reported more often direct life-threatening or private events as their index trauma than men and suffered from more PTSD symptoms than their male colleagues. Results indicate that police officers experience a considerable number of different traumatic events, which is significantly associated with PTSD symptoms. The results highlight the importance of early detection of PTSD symptoms in the police force. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2017
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