Examining psychic consequences in firefighters exposed to stress.

The total of 178 firefighters from the Littoral Mountainous County, the Republic of Croatia, have undergone psychotestings in three groups--99 professionals from city Rijeka, 44 professionals from suburb and 35 volunteers from suburb. The scores of PSS 10 Cohen Stress Perception Scale, COPE questionnaire, STAI X1 anxiety test as condition and STAI X2 anxiety test as trait personality and Beck Depression Inventory were analyzed. The results have shown that firefighters do not suffer from negative effects of stress. There is slight anxiety as condition in city firefighters and medium anxiety as trait personality in all firemen. All firefighters are often problem-oriented, need only occasionally compassion of environment and sometimes react by avoiding to face stress. They differ significantly by depression (p < 0.001), which is negligible in relation to ordinary population. "Working anxiety", i.e. medium anxiety which is a distinctive trait of their personality becomes the necessary initiator of functioning in the most difficult working conditions.