Gender and Age Differences in Trauma and PTSD Among Dutch Treatment-Seeking Police Officers.

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.

Referentie: 
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. ; Olff, Miranda | 2017
In: Journal of Nervous & Mental Disease, ISSN 0022-3018 | 205 | 2 | february | 87–92
http://journals.lww.com/jonmd/Citation/2017/02000/Gender_and_Age_Differences_in_Trauma_and_PTSD.4.aspx
http://doi.org/10.1097/NMD.0000000000000562