Department of Clinical Psychology and Experimental Psychopathology, University of Groningen, Grote Kruisstraat 2, 9712, Groningen, TS, Netherlands.
Psychologische Hochschule Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
Psychiatr Q. 2019 Sep;90(3):533-541. doi: 10.1007/s11126-019-09648-x.
Violence against therapists by their clients are a common occurrence across clinical settings and may have a lasting impact on the clinician's professional and personal functioning. In spite of this, no study to date has looked at the frequency of trauma-induced symptoms in psychotherapists. Using a sample of N = 917 psychotherapists across Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, we analyzed the frequency and sequelae of patient attacks suffered or witnessed by therapists. More than half (51.3%) of the sample reported having been the victim or witness of patient attacks or threats of violence in their career. Among the affected therapists, 27.7% reported posttraumatic symptoms lasting longer than four weeks and 2.7% presented symptoms amounting to a full-PTSD diagnosis. Thus, while the frequency of attacks and trauma-induced symptoms were considerable, estimated PTSD rates were rather low. The findings suggest that practitioners should be conscious of client violence being an occupational risk and that it is advisable to have protective measures in place.
治疗师遭受其客户的暴力行为在临床环境中很常见，可能对临床医生的专业和个人功能产生持久影响。尽管如此，迄今为止尚无研究关注心理治疗师创伤后症状的频率。我们使用来自德国、奥地利和瑞士的 N = 917 名心理治疗师的样本，分析了治疗师遭受或目睹的患者攻击的频率和后果。超过一半（51.3%）的样本报告在职业生涯中曾遭受过患者的攻击或暴力威胁。在受影响的治疗师中，27.7%报告持续超过四周的创伤后症状，2.7%出现相当于完全 PTSD 诊断的症状。因此，虽然攻击和创伤后症状的频率相当高，但估计的 PTSD 发生率却相当低。研究结果表明，从业者应该意识到客户暴力是一种职业风险，并且建议采取保护措施。
