title: Peritraumatic and trait dissociation differentiate police officers with resilient versus symptomatic trajectories of posttraumatic stress symptoms.
abstract: Research has consistently demonstrated that stress reactions to potentially traumatic events do not represent a unified phenomenon. Instead, individuals tend to cluster into prototypical response patterns over time including chronic symptoms, recovery, and resilience. We examined heterogeneity in a posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom course in a sample of 178 active-duty police officers following exposure to a life-threatening event using latent growth mixture modeling (LGMM). This analysis revealed 3 discrete PTSD symptom trajectories: resilient (88%), distressed-improving (10%), and distressed-worsening (2%). We further examined whether trait and peritraumatic dissociation distinguished these symptom trajectories. Findings indicate that trait and peritraumatic dissociation differentiated the resilient from the distressed-improving trajectory (trait, p < .05; peritraumatic, p < .001), but only peritraumatic dissociation differentiated the resilient from the distressed-worsening trajectory (p < .001). It is essential to explore heterogeneity in symptom course and its predictors among active-duty police officers, a repeatedly exposed group. These findings suggest that police officers may be a highly resilient group overall. Furthermore, though there is abundant evidence that dissociation has a positive linear relationship with PTSD symptoms, this study demonstrates that degree of dissociation can distinguish between resilient and symptomatic groups of individuals.
authors: Departmentof Psychiatry, PTSD Research Program, New York University School of Medicine, NY 10016, USA. isaac.galatzer-levy@nyumc.org
authors: Isaac R
authors: IR
authors: Galatzer-Levy
authors: Anita
authors: A
authors: Madan
authors: Thomas C
authors: TC
authors: Neylan
authors: Clare
authors: C
authors: Henn-Haase
authors: Charles R
authors: CR
authors: Marmar
mesh_terms: D057189:Checklist; D006801:Humans; D015233:Models, Statistical; D010551:Personality; D016495:Police; D055500:Resilience, Psychological; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000503:physiopathology*; D014505:Urban Population