Post-disaster stressful life events and WTC-related posttraumatic stress, depressive symptoms, and overall functioning among responders to the World Trade Center disaster

Details

• Personal Author:
  Crane M ; Feder A ; Gonzalez A ; Kaplan J ; Kotov R ; Luft BJ ; Moline J ; Pietrzak RH ; Reissman, Dori B. ; Schechter CB ; Southwick SM ; Udasin I ; Vujanovic A ; Zvolensky MJ
• Description:
  Background: The current study examined contributions of post-disaster stressful life events in relation to the maintenance of WTC-related posttraumatic stress, depressive symptoms, and overall functioning among rescue, recovery, and clean-up workers who responded to the September 11, 2001 World Trade Center (WTC) terrorist attacks. Methods: Participants were 18,896 WTC responders, including 8466 police officers and 10,430 nontraditional responders (85.8% male; 86.4% Caucasian; Mage ¼ 39.5, SD ¼ 8.8) participating in the WTC Health Program who completed an initial examination between July, 2002 and April, 2010 and who were reassessed, on average, 2.5 years later. Results: Path analyses were conducted to evaluate contributions of life events to the maintenance of WTC-related posttraumatic stress, depressive symptoms, and overall functioning. These analyses were stratified by police and non-traditional responder groups and adjusted for age, sex, time from 9/11 to initial visit, WTC exposures (three WTC contextual exposures: co-worker, friend, or a relative died in the disaster; co-worker, friend, or a relative injured in the disaster; and responder was exposed to the dust cloud on 9/11), and interval from initial to first follow-up visit. In both groups, WTC-related posttraumatic stress, depressive symptoms, and overall functioning were stable over the follow-up period. WTC exposures were related to these three outcomes at the initial assessment. WTC-related posttraumatic stress, depressive symptoms, and overall functioning, at the initial assessment each predicted the occurrence of post-disaster stressful life events, as measured by Disaster Supplement of the Diagnostic Interview Schedule. Post-disaster stressful life events, in turn, were associated with subsequent mental health, indicating partial mediation of the stability of observed mental health. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Aging Emergency Responders Firefighters Health Care Facilities Workforce And Services Health Personnel Law Enforcement Men Mental Health Occupational Health Pathology Safety Stress, Psychological Women

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• Keywords:
  Age-groups Author Keywords: Stress Exposure Depression Disaster Emergency-responders Exposure-levels Fire-fighters Humans Law-enforcement-workers Medical-personnel Medical-rescue-services Mental-health Mental-stress Psychological-effects Psychological-reactions Psychological-responses Psychological-stress Psychology Sociological-factors Stress Stress Generation Trauma Workers

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• ISSN:
  0022-3956
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Contract
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Connecticut ; District of Columbia ; New York ; OSHA Region 1 ; OSHA Region 2 ; OSHA Region 3 ; OSHA Region 6 ; Texas
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  OD - Office of the Director ; WTCHP - World Trade Center Health Program
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  97-105
• Volume:
  61
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20045656
• Citation:
  J Psychiatr Res 2015 Feb; 61:97-105
• Contact Point Address:
  Michael J. Zvolensky, The University of Houston, 126 Heyne Building, Suite 104, Houston, Texas 77204-5502, United States
• Email:
  mjzvolen@central.uh.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2015
• Performing Organization:
  State University of New York at Stony Brook
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Source Full Name:
  Journal of Psychiatric Research
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:051f2e5d22758411cb652498ce181fc1adb7d36ab04fa5166a738b5a08421c161eb6a8b1fb065a8522f938162b44647d7ac4c2ee47890f49c553fe7321379ac1
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/201001/cdc_201001_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 597.64 KB ]