Posttraumatic stress disorder among hospital surgical physicians exposed to victims of terror: a prospective, controlled questionnaire survey (original) (raw)
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Research Square (Research Square), 2024
Background Over the past 20 years, Jewish and Bedouin civilians in southern Israel have faced the ongoing threat of missile attacks from Gaza, with possible mental health consequences. This study aimed to assess the prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among Jewish and Bedouin adult civilians in southern Israel in a period with few missile attacks from Gaza, and no military operations. Methods The study population included 389 participants (246 Jews, 143 Bedouins) living within 40 km/25 mi from Gaza for at least two years and interviewed between January and March 2023 (before the ongoing war that started on October 7th, 2023). The PTSD Checklist (PCL-5) was used, with a score of 33 as a cutoff point for the presence of PTSD. Results Compared to Jews, a signi cantly lower proportion of Bedouins reported accessibility to bomb shelters and siren warning systems. Overall, 20.3% of the respondents exhibited PTSD. Multivariate analysis revealed that after adjustment for demographic and household characteristics, Bedouins had a sevenfold signi cantly higher probability of PTSD in comparison to Jews (OR = 6.9, 95%CI: 3.6-13.1). Compared to participants with high socioeconomic status (SES), participants with low SES had a six-fold signi cantly higher probability of PTSD (OR = 5.8, 95%CI: 2.1-16.5). Being single, living in urban areas, or having a disability signi cantly increased the probability of PTSD. Conclusions The ndings of this study demonstrate elevated levels of PTSD among both Jewish and Bedouin civilians residing in southern Israel, with a signi cantly higher prevalence among the Bedouin population. Several sociodemographic characteristics were associated with the increased prevalence of PTSD, the most prominent of which was low SES. Healthcare professionals and authorities should be proactive in screening for PTSD, and provide tailored treatment and support, taking into account ethnical and cultural background. Authorities should address the disparity in bomb shelter access and siren warning coverage between Bedouin and Jewish communities.
Archives of Psychiatric Nursing, 2016
This study aimed to assess the level of posttraumatic stress disorder and to examine the relationship between exposure to war stress and posttraumatic symptoms among health care providers following Israeli offensives against Gaza Strip in 2014. Methodology: A cross-sectional design was used for this study. We targeted all nurses and doctors working in three governmental hospitals in the Gaza Strip and worked with victims of the last war, more specifically, those who were working in emergency departments, intensive care units, operating rooms, surgical departments, and burn units. A demographic sheet and Impact Event Scale-Revised were used in this study. The Impact Event Scale-Revised has three sub-scales; intrusion, avoidance, and hyper-arousal. Results: The results showed that 291 (89.8%) of 324 participants had scores more than 35 (threshold cutoff point) on the Impact Event Scale-Revised. Scores ranged from zero to 80 with a mean of 52.13. Females had higher levels of stress (55.79) than males (51.63) and nurses (54.85) had more stress than physicians (47.38). The most frequent symptoms of trauma subscales was "avoidance" (mean = 20.04), followed by "intrusion" (mean = 17.83), and then "hyper-arousal" (mean = 14.27). Levels of trauma symptoms were not affected by place of living, hospital of work, while level of education had impacted level of trauma. Conclusion: The findings showed that health care providers suffered from severe posttraumatic symptoms after exposure to prolonged war stress. This level of trauma among health care providers warrants intervention programs to reduce stress and trauma among Gaza health care providers after the war.
2009
We congratulate Somer et al for this interesting and important research. 1 During the 34 days of fighting of the Second Lebanon War II (12 July to 14 August 2006), civilians in Israel’s northern region suffered a bombardment of approximately 4,000 rockets. On average, daily attacks were around 120 rockets struck daily. The rockets attacks resulted in 2,774 anxiety and acute stress reaction casualties that were evacuated from the scene. Subsequently, the bombardments led to a high prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD). 2 Previous research investigated factors that increase the risk of developing PTSD symptoms.The risk factors include: degree of exposure, history of prior trauma, peri-traumatic dissociation, and perceived direct-life threat. 3 Bleich et al studied the psychiatric implications of SCUD missile attacks on the civilian population during the Persian Gulf War in 1991, and found, in a survey of 12 hospitals admitting casualties in Israel, that approximately 43...
Responses of mental health professionals to man-made trauma: The Israeli experience
Social Science & Medicine, 1996
A~tract-The reactions and responses of mental health professionals in the area of armed conflict is the focus of this paper. It examines the way the therapeutic community has dealt with the survivors of two catastrophes-the Holocaust and warfare. A parallel process of a gradual change of attitudes towards the survivors was observed: emotional detachment, lack of recognition in the early stages and, eventually. social acceptance and empathy. The origins of these attitudes will be discussed, and three explanations will be offered. Israel is a small, stress-ridden country that has known seven full-scale wars and countless hostilities during its 47 years of existence. Our national history over 2000 years has been beset with persecution, pogroms and deportations, culminating in the Nazi Holocaust. The establishment of the State of Israel brought with it the hope of a secure existence. Unfortunately, this has not been achieved, and Israel is a natural laboratory of war stress. The reactions and responses of mental health professionals in areas of armed conflict is the focus of this paper. Presented here will be this author's analysis of the way the Israeli society and the helping professions in Israel have dealt with two kinds of man-made catastrophic events: the Nazi Holocaust and seven Arab-Israeli wars. In these different events of human violence, a parallel process of a gradual change of attitude towards the survivors was observed. This remarkable parallel presents emotional detachment, lack of recognition and at times blaming the victims in the early stages and, eventually, social acceptance and empathy. The process of social change becomes complex when the agents of change are themselves members of the social entity undergoing the change. This paper shall demonstrate that therapists and mental health planners had considerable difficulties in transcending public attitudes toward survivors of the Holocaust and psychiatric casualties of the Israeli-Arab conflict. As a result, they were unable to treat properly those injured by trauma until certain social changes took place. This paper submits that the Israeli experience is not isolated and limited to our part of the globe. It represents a general, universal process, from which parallel processes in other countries and in other man-made trauma can be drawn.
Medical Psychology in Israel has been recently recognized as a separate specialty. Therefore in our professional community the thoughts and efforts these days are mainly directed towards defining the concept and developing the field and the profession.
Are community studies of psychological trauma's impact accurate? A study among Jews and Palestinians
Psychological assessment, 2011
We evaluated the accuracy of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and major depression (MD) diagnoses using brief assessment instruments conducted by phone. PTSD and MD were assessed by telephone interview in a randomly selected sample of Jewish and Palestinian residents of Jerusalem during a period of marked threat of terrorism and war (N=150). We utilized the PTSD Symptom Scale and the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9; . We then conducted in-depth, in-person interviews within two weeks, assessing PTSD and MD using the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI; . The prevalence of PTSD and MD diagnosis ascertained by the two assessment modalities was similar. Indices of classification accuracy for the phone interview, using the in-person interview as the standard, ranged from modest to high. Brief phone and in-depth in-person measures of PTSD and MD also correlated similarly with other demographic, stress, and coping factors, suggesting convergent validity. Brief phone interviews appear useful for estimating the prevalence of
Archives of Public Health
Background On August 4, 2020, Lebanon faced one of the deadliest mass casualty explosions the world has witnessed during the twenty-first century. The human and emotional tolls were heavy on attending physicians, clinical fellows, residents, interns, medical students, and registered nurses, who were working in dramatic conditions, triaging, and treating thousands of blast-related casualties. We evaluated the risk of developing post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms (PTSS), among these healthcare workers (HCWs) from different Lebanese hospitals. Methods This is a multicentered, cross-sectional study that was conducted in December 2020, using an online questionnaire that evaluated the risk of developing PTSS based on the validated self-reported PTSD-Checklist for DSM-V (PCL-5). We also explored possible correlates with the participants’ socio-demographic characteristics, job profile, mental health, and blast-related events. Results Out of 519 participants, 44% were at high risk of de...