Mental Disorders in Firefighters following Large-Scale Disaster

No Thumbnail Available
File version
Author(s)
Wagner, SL
White, N
Randall, C
Regehr, C
White, M
Alden, LE
Buys, N
Carey, MG
Corneil, W
Fyfe, T
Matthews, LR
Fraess-Phillips, A
Krutop, E
Griffith University Author(s)
Primary Supervisor
Other Supervisors
Editor(s)
Date
2020
Size
File type(s)
Location
License
Abstract

Firefighting service is known to involve high rates of exposure to potentially traumatic situations, and research on mental health in firefighting populations is of critical importance in understanding the impact of occupational exposure. To date, the literature concerning prevalence of trauma-related mental disorders such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has not distinguished between symptomology associated routine duty-related exposure and exposure to large-scale disaster. The present systematic review synthesizes a heterogeneous cross-national literature on large-scale disaster exposure in firefighters and provides support for the hypothesis that the prevalence of PTSD, major depressive disorder, and anxiety disorders are elevated in firefighters compared with rates observed in the general population. In addition, we conducted narrative synthesis concerning several commonly assessed predictive factors for disorder and found that sociodemographic factors appear to bear a weak relationship to mental disorder, while incident-related factors, such as severity and duration of disaster exposure, bear a stronger and more consistent relationship to the development of PTSD and depression in cross-national samples. Future work should expand on these preliminary findings to better understand the impact of disaster exposure in firefighting personnel.

Journal Title

Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness

Conference Title
Book Title
Edition
Volume
Issue
Thesis Type
Degree Program
School
Publisher link
Patent number
Funder(s)
Grant identifier(s)
Rights Statement
Rights Statement
Item Access Status
Note

This publication has been entered in Griffith Research Online as an advanced online version.

Access the data
Related item(s)
Subject

Health services and systems

Public health

Epidemiology

disasters

epidemiology

occupational exposure

posttraumatic stress disorder

trauma

Persistent link to this record
Citation

Wagner, SL; White, N; Randall, C; Regehr, C; White, M; Alden, LE; Buys, N; Carey, MG; Corneil, W; Fyfe, T; Matthews, LR; Fraess-Phillips, A; Krutop, E, Mental Disorders in Firefighters following Large-Scale Disaster, Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness, 2020

Collections