Firefighters under alert: psychological morbidity, empathy and alexithymia between firefighters and non-firefighters
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17575/psicologia.1835Palavras-chave:
Bombeiros, morbilidade psicológica, trauma, distress psicológico, empatia, alexitimiaResumo
Firefighters have high exposure to traumatic events and have an increased risk of developing symptoms related to trauma. The current study assessed the psychological morbidity, empathy and alexithymia of volunteer firefighters compared to career firefighters and to non-firefighter comparators from the general population. Group differences were assessed using multivariate comparisons and univariate tests and discriminant analysis for individual measures. A total of 1062 individuals completed the protocol. Considering firefighters as the focus of analysis, data suggested that both career and volunteer firefighters presented higher trauma than the comparison group. In subscales of empathy, compared to the comparison group, career firefighters scored higher on the perspective-taking scale, while firefighters showed less personal discomfort and less fantasy. Firefighters showed less alexithymia, in the outward-oriented style of thinking than the comparison group. The findings suggest the need for more prevention and treatment efforts for firefighters, with the introduction of educational and therapeutic interventions.
Downloads
Referências
Armstrong, D., Shakespeare-Finch, J., & Shochet, I. (2014). Predicting post-traumatic growth and post-traumatic stress in firefighters. Australian Journal of Psychology, 66(1), 38–46. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajpy.12032
Bagby, R. M., Taylor, G. J., & Parker, J. D. A. (1994). The twenty-item Toronto Alexithymia scale-II. Convergent, discriminant, and concurrent validity. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 38(1), 33–40. https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-3999(94)90006-X
Bartlett, B. A., Jardin, C., Martin, C., Tran, J. K., Buser, S., Anestis, M. D., & Vujanovic, A. A. (2018). Posttraumatic stress and suicidality among firefighters: The moderating role of distress tolerance. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 42(4), 483–496. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-018-9892-y
Berger, W., Coutinho, E. S. F., Figueira, I., Marques-Portella, C., Luz, M. P., Neylan, T. C., Marmar, C. R., & Mendlowicz, M. V. (2012). Rescuers at risk: A systematic review and meta-regression analysis of the worldwide current prevalence and correlates of PTSD in rescue workers. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 47(6), 1001–1011. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-011-0408-2.Rescuers
Brown, J., Mulhern, G., & Joseph, S. (2002). Incident-related stressors, locus of control, coping, and psychological distress among firefighters in Northern Ireland. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 15(2), 161–168. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1014816309959
Declercq, F., Vanheule, S., & Deheegher, J. (2010). Alexithymia and posttraumatic stress: Subscales and symptom clusters. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 66(10), 1076–1089. https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.20715
De Jong, J. T. V. M., Komproe, I. H., Van Ommeren, M., Masri, M. E., Araya, M., Khaled, N., Van De Put, W., & Somasundaram, D. (2001). Lifetime events and posttraumatic stress disorder in 4 postconflict settings. JAMA, 286(5), 555. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.286.5.555
Figley, C. R. (1995). Compassion fatigue as secondary traumatic stress disorder: An overview. In C. R. Figley (Ed.), Compassion fatigue: Coping with secondary traumatic stress disorder in those who treat the traumatized (pp. 1–20). Brunner-Routledge.
Francis, K. B., Gummerum, M., Ganis, G., Howard, I. S., & Terbeck, S. (2018). Virtual morality in the helping professions: Simulated action and resilience. British Journal of Psychology, 109(3), 442–465. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjop.12276
Grevin, F. (1996). Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, ego eefense mechanisms, and empathy among urban paramedics. Psychological Reports, 79(2), 483–495. https://doi.org/10.2466/pr0.1996.79.2.483
Gwaltney, C. J., Shields, A. L., & Shiffman, S. (2008). Equivalence of electronic and paper-and-pencil administration of patient-reported outcome measures: A meta-analytic review. Value in Health, 11(2), 322–333. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1524-4733.2007.00231.x
Halpern, J., Maunder, R. G., Schwartz, B., & Gurevich, M. (2012). Identifying, describing, and expressing emotions after critical incidents in paramedics. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 25(1), 111–114. https://doi.org/10.1002/jts.21662
Hayes, J. P., VanElzakker, M. B., & Shin, L. M. (2012). Emotion and cognition interactions in PTSD: A review of neurocognitive and neuroimaging studies. Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience, 6. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnint.2012.00089
Heinrichs, M., Wagner, D., Schoch, W., Soravia, L. M., Hellhammer, D. H., & Ehlert, U. (2005). Predicting posttraumatic stress symptoms from pretraumatic risk factors: A 2-year prospective follow-up study in firefighters. American Journal of Psychiatry, 162(12), 2276–2286. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.162.12.2276
Janka, A., & Duschek, S. (2018). Self-reported stress and psychophysiological reactivity in paramedics. Anxiety, Stress and Coping, 31(4), 402–417. https://doi.org/10.1080/10615806.2018.1454739
Kim, G. Y., Wang, D. C., & Hiil, P. C. (2018). An investigation into the multifaceted relationship between gratitude, empathy, and compassion. Journal of Positive Psychology and Wellbeing, 2(1), 23–44.
Kurtić, A., & Pranjić, N. (2011). Facial expression recognition accuracy of valence emotion among high and low indicated PTSD. Primenjena Psihologija, 4(1), 5–11. https://doi.org/10.19090/pp.2011.1.5-11
Lee, J. S., Ahn, Y. S., Jeong, K. S., Chae, J. H., & Choi, K. S. (2014). Resilience buffers the impact of traumatic events on the development of PTSD symptoms in firefighters. Journal of Affective Disorders, 162, 128–133. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2014.02.031
Limpo, T., Alves, R. A., & Castro, S. L. (2013). Medir a empatia: Adaptação portuguesa do Índice de Reactividade Interpessoal. Laboratório de Psicologia, 8(2), 171–184. https://doi.org/10.14417/lp.640
Matos, M., Pinto-Gouveia, J., & Martins, S. (2011). O Impacto traumático de experiências de vergonha: Estudo das propriedades psicométricas da versão portuguesa da Impact of Event Scale - Revised. Psychologica, 54, 413–438.
McCaslin, S. E., Metzler, T. J., Best, S. R., Liberman, A., Weiss, D. S., Fagan, J., & Marmar, C. R. (2006). Alexithymia and PTSD symptoms in urban police officers: Cross-sectional and prospective findings. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 19(3), 361–373. https://doi.org/10.1002/jts.20133
Meda, R., Moreno-Jiménez, B., Palomera, A., Arias, E., & Vargas, R. (2012). La evaluación del estrés traumático secundario. Estudio comparado en bomberos y paramédicos de los Servicios de Emergencia de Guadalajara, México. Terapia Psicologica, 30(2), 31–41. https://doi.org/10.4067/s0718-48082012000200003
Pereira, A., Oliveira, C. A., Bártolo, A., Monteiro, S., Vagos, P., & Jardim, J. (2019). Reliability and factor structure of the 10-item kessler psychological distress scale (k10) among Portuguese adults. Ciência e Saúde Coletiva, 24(3), 729–736. https://doi.org/10.1590/1413-81232018243.06322017
Pinto, R. J., Henriques, S. P., Jongenelen, I., Carvalho, C., & Maia, A. C. (2015). The strongest correlates of PTSD for firefighters: Number, recency, frequency, or perceived threat of traumatic events? Journal of Traumatic Stress, 28(5), 434–440. https://doi.org/10.1002/jts.22035
Praceres, N., Parker, J. D. A., & Taylor, G. J. (2000). Adaptaçao portuguesa da escala de Alexitimia de Toronto de 20 Itens (TAS-20). Revista Ibero-Americana de Diagnóstico e Avaliação Psicológica, 9(1), 9–21.
Regehr, C., Blanc, V., Jelley, R. B., & Barath, I. (2008). Acute stress and performance in police recruits. Stress and Health, 24(4), 295–303. https://doi.org/10.1002/smi.1182
Regehr, C., Goldberg, G., & Hughes, J. (2002). Exposure to human tragedy, empathy, and trauma in ambulance paramedics. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 72(4), 505–513. https://doi.org/10.1037/0002-9432.72.4.505
Semmens, E. O., Domitrovich, J., Conway, K., & Noonan, C. W. (2016). A cross-sectional survey of occupational history as a wildland firefighter and health. American Journal of Industrial Medicine, 59(4), 330–335. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajim.22566
Stanley, I. H., Boffa, J. W., Hom, M. A., Kimbrel, N. A., & Joiner, T. E. (2017). Differences in psychiatric symptoms and barriers to mental health care between volunteer and career firefighters. Psychiatry Research, 247(July 2016), 236–242. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2016.11.037
Tabachnick, B. G., & Fidell, L. S. (2007). Using multivariate statistics. Boston: Pearson.
Taylor, G., & Bagby, R. (2004). New trends in alexithymia research. Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, 73(2), 68–77. https://doi.org/10.1159/000075537
Wagner, S. L., Pasca, R., & Regehr, C. (2019). Firefighters and empathy: Does it hurt to care too much? Journal of Loss and Trauma, 24(3), 238–250. https://doi.org/10.1080/15325024.2018.1525035
