Post traumatic stress, psychological distress in rescue 1122 workers of Peshawar and their coping strategies

Abstract

Rescue workers are exposed to a range of traumatic events in their line of duty that can result in Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In the past, research conducted on this population has concluded that different rates of PTSD and depression exist in these workers around the world and has analyzed the effectiveness of different strategies to cope with it. However, little is known about PTSD and coping strategies of rescue workers of Pakistan, especially of KPK that has seen numerous natural and manmade disasters (terrorist attacks) in last few years. This research is aimed at studying the post traumatic stress symptomatology, psychological distress and the coping strategies of Rescue 1122 workers of Peshawar. 133 rescue workers completed Agha Khan University of Anxiety and depression scale (AKUADS), Impact of event scale revised (IES-R) and Brief COPE. Results showed 27.1% prevalence of clinical level of PTSD and 32.3% prevalence of psychological distress in this sample. Avoidant emotional coping (b=1.22, p=.000) and active emotional coping (b= .56,p=.000) was found to be a risk factor for development of PTSD. These findings highlight the need to design training and intervention for rescuers of Peshawar which better equips them to deal with stressors of their work.