Post-traumatic stress and coping factors among search and recovery divers

作者：Carey T^*; Gallagher J; Greiner B A

来源：Occupational Medicine, 2014, 64(1): 31-33.

DOI：10.1093/occmed/kqt125

• Coping mechanisms
• divers
• post-traumatic stress disorder
• PTSD
• search and recovery

Irish search and recovery divers dive on a voluntary basis to recover missing persons. During these procedures, they encounter situations not typically part of ordinary human experience and might be expected to experience psychological effects as a result. %26lt;br%26gt;To investigate the association of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms with previous experience of missing person recovery among divers, and to investigate the coping mechanisms used. %26lt;br%26gt;Self-administered questionnaires were distributed to all 206 active search divers in Ireland. A validated questionnaire, the Impact of Event Scale revised (IES-R), was used together with a coping questionnaire to compare the level of symptoms in divers with and without recovery experience, and to describe the main coping factors. %26lt;br%26gt;One hundred and fifty-five questionnaires were returned, a response rate of 75%. Divers with prior missing person recovery experience scored lower on all three PTSD dimensions (avoidance, intrusion and hyper-arousal) with a significant difference for intrusion (P %26lt; 0.001). Coping mechanisms listed by the divers were search and recovery training, support from peers and search unit and sense of duty. %26lt;br%26gt;The results do not support the hypothesis of an accumulation of traumatic experience in experienced divers but may indicate a survivor bias of the most resilient individuals, or a wearing off of vulnerability to traumatic events with experience.

• 出版日期2014-1