Trait Dissociation Predicts Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms in a Prospective Study of Urban Police Officers

Overview

Journal J Nerv Ment Dis

Specialties Neurology
Psychiatry

Date 2008 Dec 17

PMID 19077859

Citations 12

Authors

Shannon E McCaslin

Sabra S Inslicht

Thomas J Metzler

Clare Henn-Haase

Shira Maguen

Thomas C Neylan

Gerard Choucroun

Charles R Marmar

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The current study prospectively examines the predictive relationship of trait dissociation, assessed during academy training, to PTSD symptoms assessed at 12 months of active police duty in relatively young and healthy police academy recruits (N = 180). The roles of pre-academy trauma exposure, exposure to life-threatening critical incidents during police duty, and peritraumatic dissociation at the time of the officer's worst critical incident were also examined. Utilizing path analytic techniques, greater trait dissociation, assessed during academy training, was predictive of both peritraumatic dissociation, and PTSD symptoms assessed at 12 months of police service. Moreover, after accounting for trait dissociation and peritraumatic dissociation, the relationship of previous trauma to later PTSD symptoms was no longer significant, demonstrating that the effect of previous trauma on later vulnerability to PTSD symptoms in this sample may be mediated by both trait and peritraumatic dissociation.

Citing Articles

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Carleton R, McCarron M, Kratzig G, Sauer-Zavala S, Neary J, Lix L BMC Psychol. 2022; 10(1):295.

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Computational causal discovery for post-traumatic stress in police officers.

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Pre-deployment dissociation and personality as risk factors for post-deployment post-traumatic stress disorder in Danish soldiers deployed to Afghanistan.

Ponce de Leon B, Andersen S, Karstoft K, Elklit A Eur J Psychotraumatol. 2018; 9(1):1443672.

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Acute Stress Symptoms in Seriously Injured Patients: Precipitating Versus Cumulative Trauma and the Contribution of Peritraumatic Distress.

Briere J, Dias C, Semple R, Scott C, Bigras N, Godbout N J Trauma Stress. 2017; 30(4):381-388.

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