title: Prediction of PTSD in police officers after six months--a prospective study.
abstract: The aim of this prospective study was to explore the predictors for the development of PTSD in police officers six months after encountering situations of a potentially traumatic nature. Fifty-nine police officers were studied immediately after the event (T1) and six months later (T2). At T2 PTSD was assessed using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID-I). PTSD was predicted by intrusions (Impact of Event Scale-Revised; IES-R), the impairment scale (is), global assessment of functioning scale (GAF), gender, age and sense of coherence scale (SOC). The diagnosis of an acute stress disorder (ASD) at T1 had a high specificity for identifying PTSD at T2. The strongest predictor for the development of PTSD was found to be the factor intrusions. Contrary to our expectations, age was not a significant predictive factor for PTSD. Thus, acute stress disorder (ASD) and a high degree of intrusions experienced immediately after a traumatic incident helped to identify early police officers at risk of developing chronic PTSD.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, University of Münster, Domagkstrasse 22, D-48149 Münster, Germany.
authors.forename: Nils
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Schütte
authors.forename: Olaf
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Bär
authors.forename: Udo
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Weiss
authors.forename: Gereon
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Heuft
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016495:Police; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology; D040701:Stress Disorders, Traumatic, Acute / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis*; D013997:Time Factors; D055815:Young Adult