1. Gender and Age Differences in Trauma and PTSD Among Dutch Treatment-Seeking Police Officers.
- Author
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van der Meer CA, Bakker A, Smit AS, van Buschbach S, den Dekker M, Westerveld GJ, Hutter RC, Gersons BP, and Olff M
- Subjects
- Adult, Age Factors, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Netherlands, Occupational Diseases psychology, Sex Factors, Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic psychology, Life Change Events, Occupational Diseases diagnosis, Police psychology, Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic diagnosis, Stress, Psychological psychology
- 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.
- Published
- 2017
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