Posttraumatic stress disorder in Belgian police officers: prevalence and the effects of exposure to traumatic events.

ABSTRACT: Background: Police officers are at considerable risk of developing posttraumatic symptoms because they frequently encounter violent or emotionally disturbing incidents. We investigate experiences with potentially traumatic events (PTE), traumatic exposure, and the prevalence of probable posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), complex PTSD and subclinical PTSD in a sample of Belgian police officers.Methods: In total, 1,465 police officers from 15 Belgian Local Police zones participated in a web-based survey, consisting of three segments: evaluating experiences with a list of 29 PTE, assessing if any of these PTE accounted for traumatic exposure, and evaluating 1-month probable PTSD, complex PTSD and subclinical PTSD prevalence using the International Trauma Questionnaire (ITQ).<

SUBMITTER: Rentmeesters N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9869988 | biostudies-literature | 2023

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature