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Prediction of PTSD in Police Officers after Six Months – a Prospective Study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 January 2013

Nils Schütte ,
Olaf Bär ,
Udo Weiss  and
Gereon Heuft
Nils Schütte
Affiliation:
University of Münster (Germany)
Olaf Bär
Affiliation:
University of Münster (Germany)
Udo Weiss
Affiliation:
Police Training Centre for the Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia “Carl Severing” (Germany)
Gereon Heuft*
Affiliation:
University of Münster (Germany)
*
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Gereon Heuft. Department of Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, University of Münster, Domagkstraβe 22, D-48149 Münster (Germany). Phone: +49-2518352902. Email: heuftge@mednet.uni-muenster.de
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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.

Este estudio prospectivo pretendía determinar las predicciones del trastorno por estrés postraumático (TEPT) para agentes de policía pasados seis meses de un evento potencialmente traumático. Se evaluó a 59 agentes de policía directamente después del incidente (T1) y seis meses después (T2). En la segunda fase de evaluación (T2), TEPT se medía mediante entrevista semiestrucurada (Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV; SCID-I), esto permitía identificar a los participantes que cumplían con los criterios DSM-IV para el diagnóstico de este trastorno. Además, TEPT se evaluó midiendo las intrusiones (con la Escala revisada del impacto de los eventos; -Impact of Event Scale Revised; IES-R), el deterioro de salud (con la Escala de deterioro -Impairment scale -IS-), la evaluación global del funcionamiento (global assessment of functioning -GAF-), género, edad y escala de coherencia (sense of coherence, - SOC-). Los resultados mostraron que el diagnóstico de trastorno de estrés agudo (en T1) estaba estrechamente relacionado con la identificación posterior del TEPT (en T2). Siendo las intrusiones el mejor predictor. En contra de las expectativas, la edad no fue un buen predictor del TEPT. Asimismo, el desorden de estrés agudo y el alto grado de intrusiones vividas inmediatamente después del incidente traumático ayudaron a la identificación temprana de agentes de policía susceptibles de padecer un TEPT crónico.

Keywords

traumapolicepost-traumatic stress disorderTEPTevento traumáticopolicíatrastorno por estrés postraumático
Type
Research Article
Information
The Spanish Journal of Psychology , Volume 15 , Issue 3 , November 2012 , pp. 1339 - 1348
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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