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Police officers, and specifically women officers, report elevated mental disorder rates relative to the general population, which may be impacted by sleep quality, policing-related stress, and social support. In a sample of Canadian police officers, sex was indirectly related to post traumatic stress, depression, generalized anxiety, panic, and social anxiety symptoms through its relationships with social support and sleep quality, but not through policing-related stress. Sex was indirectly related to problematic alcohol use symptoms through sleep quality only. Differences in clinical symptom severity between both sexes may be partially accounted for by the worsened sleep quality reported by women officers relative to their men counterparts. Conversely, general social support appears to be a protective, albeit insufficient, factor influencing the mental health of women police officers. Male and women police officers did not differ in their reports of policing-related stress. The current results underscore the importance of incorporating strategies to improve sleep practices into police workplace environments. Additionally, findings that general social support and policing-related stress do not help explain the trend of increased clinical severity reported by women police suggest that more research is still needed to identify and delineate other contributing factors.

Background Social support may be a protective factor for the mental health of public safety personnel (PSP), who are frequently exposed to potentially psychologically traumatic events and report substantial post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and major depressive disorder (MDD) symptoms. Research examining perceived social support and its association with PTSD and MDD in different PSP categories (e.g. firefighters, paramedics) is limited. Aims To examine differences in perceived social support across PSP and determine whether perceived social support is associated with differences in rates of MDD and PTSD. Methods We asked Canadian PSP, including correctional workers and officers, public safety communications officials, firefighters, paramedics, municipal and provincial police officers, and Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officers, to complete an online anonymous survey that assessed socio-demographic information (e.g. occupation, sex, marital status, service years), social supports and symptoms of mental disorders, including PTSD and MDD. Analyses included ANOVA and logistic regression models. Results Perceived social support differed by PSP occupation. RCMP officers reported lower social support than all other PSP except paramedics. For most PSP categories, PSP who reported greater social support were less likely to screen positive for PTSD (adjusted odds ratios [AORs]: 0.90–0.93). Across all PSP categories, greater perceived social support was associated with a decreased likelihood of screening positive for MDD (AORs: 0.85–0.91). Conclusions Perceived social support differs across some PSP categories and predicts PTSD and MDD diagnostic status. Studies involving diagnostic clinical interviews, longitudinal designs and social support interventions are needed to replicate and extend our results.

A strong body of empirical evidence demonstrates the anxiolytic effects of exercise; however, translating these findings into an effective mental health promotion strategy for people with anxiety-related disorders (ARDs) may prove challenging as people with ARDs tend to report lower levels of participation in physical activity, including exercise. To overcome this barrier, research is needed to understand the psychological processes that fuel engagement and disengagement from exercise for people with ARDs. The purpose of this study was to use grounded theory to describe the exercise experience for people with ARDs, including the barriers and facilitators that they face. Participants were recruited via an online eligibility screener and 16 eligible participants, who met diagnostic criteria for an ARD and reported being physically inactive, completed individual face-to-face interviews. The model resulting from our study shows that people with ARDs frequently experience exercise anxiety or the cognitive (i.e., worries about exercise), physical (i.e., negative reactions to the physical sensations associated with exercise), and behavioural (i.e., avoidance) symptoms of anxiety when they think about and/or engage in exercise. The model also identifies several factors (e.g., social support, money, time) that can facilitate short-term exercise participation and explains how loss of these factors leads back to a cycle of exercise anxiety and related long-term avoidance behaviour. Our findings suggest that researchers and clinicians should consider targeting exercise anxiety, perhaps through the use of cognitive behavioural interventions, to aid people with ARDs to achieve long-term adherence and exercise-related benefits.

Background: The Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) was developed as a screening tool for problematic alcohol use and an intervention framework to aid those who drink excessively. While the AUDIT is widely used with at-risk populations, such as military veterans, major gaps exist in the research literature regarding the construct validity of the AUDIT in military samples. Objectives: This study assessed the factor structure and measurement invariance of the AUDIT in a large sample of Canadian military veterans (N = 1669; 94.94% male). Methods: Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted using a random subsample (n = 825) to assess the underlying factor structure of the AUDIT. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), using the second subsample (n = 844), was used to cross-validate the factor structure revealed by EFA and compare it to other model variants. Finally, multigroup CFAs were conducted using the whole sample to further cross-validate the factor structure and examine measurement invariance in military veterans with and without clinical elevations in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. Results: Factor analyses revealed that a modified two-factor model provided a statistically better fit to the data compared to all other model variants; yet, the results did not confirm measurement invariance across military veterans with and without clinically significant symptoms of PTSD. Conclusions/Importance: The findings are in line with increasing evidence suggesting that two subscale scores should be calculated for the AUDIT. Results further suggest that care should be taken in interpreting AUDIT scores when PTSD symptoms are present for military veterans.

Public Safety Personnel (PSP, e.g., correctional workers and officers, firefighters, paramedics, police officers, and public safety communications officials (e.g., call center operators/dispatchers)) are regularly exposed to potentially psychologically traumatic events (PPTEs). PSP also experience other occupational stressors, including organizational (e.g., staff shortages, inconsistent leadership styles) and operational elements (e.g., shift work, public scrutiny). The current research quantified occupational stressors across PSP categories and assessed for relationships with PPTEs and mental health disorders (e.g., anxiety, depression). The participants were 4820 PSP (31.7% women) responding to established self-report measures for PPTEs, occupational stressors, and mental disorder symptoms. PPTEs and occupational stressors were associated with mental health disorder symptoms (ps &lt, 0.001). PSP reported substantial difficulties with occupational stressors associated with mental health disorder symptoms, even after accounting for diverse PPTE exposures. PPTEs may be inevitable for PSP and are related to mental health, however, leadership style, organizational engagement, stigma, sleep, and social environment are modifiable variables that appear significantly related to mental health.

Interventions that reduce anxiety sensitivity (AS) may have far reaching benefits for the prevention and treatment of mental disorders. Exercise, even when limited to a single session, appears to be an efficacious intervention for reducing AS. This effect has been largely examined using moderate intensity continuous (i.e., without rest) training (MICT). High intensity exercise protocols, such as sprint interval training (SIT), have not been investigated as a strategy for reducing AS or related constructs. We examined the effects of a single session of either SIT or MICT on AS, distress tolerance (DT), and intolerance of uncertainty (IU). A total of 56 participants were randomized into either a 50-min MICT group, a 10-min SIT group, or a waitlist control group. AS, DT, and IU were measured at baseline, post-exercise session, and at 3-day and 7-day follow-ups. Both exercise groups experienced similar reductions in AS; however, these changes appeared attributable to reductions across different AS dimensions. Specifically, significant reductions in the AS Physical Concerns were noted in the SIT group whereas the MICT group experienced significant reductions in both the AS Social and Cognitive Concerns dimensions. Both DT and IU were not changed by either exercise protocol. These findings suggest that exercise protocols varying in intensity and duration can reduce AS. This knowledge could help contribute to the optimization of exercise strategies for reducing AS. Furthermore, as lack of time is frequently reported as a barrier to exercising regularly, findings that SIT reduces overall AS to a similar extent as MICT in a fraction of the time, could inform both research and practice aimed at increasing adherence to exercise protocols for psychological wellbeing.

Poor health outcomes associated with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may reflect engagement in unhealthy behaviors that increase morbidity risk and disengagement in healthy behaviors that decrease morbidity risk. Although research supports this pattern, findings are not definitive, particularly for healthy behaviors. Many studies have not controlled for effects of concurrent generalized anxiety and depression, which might explain conflicting findings. To address this limitation, we used an online cross-sectional research design and multivariate multilevel modelling to evaluate associations between a multitude of health behaviors (i.e. sedentary behavior, sleep quality, physical activity, eating habits, alcohol use and substance use) and PTSD, while adjusting for comorbid generalized anxiety and depression, in a sample of trauma-exposed individuals (N = 246). Our results indicate that PTSD and comorbid generalized anxiety and depression symptoms were differentially associated with specific health constructs. Specifically, sedentary behavior and poor sleep quality were associated with PTSD, whereas low physical activity, poor sleep quality, and unhealthy eating habits were associated with depression. Both increased alcohol and substance use were associated with generalized anxiety. Results from our study highlight the need to conceptualize associations between health behaviors and specific psychological symptoms in a comprehensive manner as part of clinical presentations of PTSD.

© 2018 the Author(s). published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis group.this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. Police agencies increasingly implement training programs to protect mental health. The Road to Mental Readiness (R2MR) program was designed by the Canadian military to increase mental health resilience. A version of R2MR was adapted for municipal police by the Mental Health Commission of Canada (MHCC). The current research was designed to assess the R2MR program, as adapted and delivered by the MHCC, in a municipal police sample. Participants were 147 Canadian police agency employees (57% women) who received a single R2MR training session. Participants completed pre- and post-training self-report questionnaires, and follow-ups at 6 and 12 months. The questionnaires assessed mental health symptoms, work engagement, resiliency, mental health knowledge, and stigma. Multilevel modeling analyses assessed for within-participant changes over time. The results were consistent with other single session interventions; specifically, there were no significant changes in mental health symptoms, resilience, or work engagement (p > .05). There were small, but significant (p < .05), reductions in stigma at post-training that may facilitate help-seeking among police; relatedly, in open-ended response fields, participants commonly described the training as helpful for changing attitudes and improving communication. More engagement with the material may produce larger, sustained gains, but more published research is critically needed. R. N. Carleton’s research is supported in part by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) through a New Investigator Award [grant number FRN: 285489]. Faculty yes