title: The influence of occupational debriefing on post-traumatic stress symptomatology in traumatized police officers.
abstract: Certain individuals, such as police officers, are exposed to traumatic events as part of their occupational roles. In an effort to prevent psychological illnesses, notably the post-traumatic stress disorder, from arising out of work-related traumatic incidents, psychological interventions have been developed such as Critical Incident Stress Debriefing (Mitchell, 1983; Mitchell & Everly, 1996). The present study tests the hypothesis that debriefing reduces the psychological morbidity caused by work-related incidents. Because debriefing techniques were not designed for application on a 'one-off' basis (Robinson & Mitchell, 1993), the procedure studied here consisted of three successive debriefing sessions (at 24 hours, 1 month and 3 months post-trauma), which included traumatic stress education. In a sample of 243 traumatized police officers, a subgroup of debriefed officers (N = 86) was compared with non-debriefed internal (N = 82) and external (N = 75) control groups. No differences in psychological morbidity were found between the groups at pre-test, at 24 hours or at 6 months post-trauma. One week post-trauma, debriefed subjects exhibited significantly more post-traumatic stress disorder symptomatology than non-debriefed subjects. High levels of satisfaction with debriefing were not reflected in positive outcomes. The findings are translated into recommendations for the future use of debriefing in police practice.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Academic Medical Centre, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. I.V.Carlier@AMC.UVA.NL
authors.forename: I V
authors.initials: IV
authors.lastname: Carlier
authors.forename: A E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Voerman
authors.forename: B P
authors.initials: BP
authors.lastname: Gersons
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003376:Counseling; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000209:etiology / Q000517:prevention & control; D016272:Occupational Health; D016495:Police; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000523:psychology; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000209:etiology* / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000523:psychology