School of Social Work, University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX, United States.
Department of Public Health, University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS, United States.
J Affect Disord. 2025 Jan 15;369:436-448. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2024.09.167. Epub 2024 Sep 26.
First responders (i.e., law enforcement officers, firefighters, and emergency medical technicians/paramedics), experience significantly higher occupational trauma exposure than U.S. adult workers outside these fields, leading to increased risks of comorbid mental health disorders. Repeated and intense trauma exposure may combine with personal factors to place them at higher risk for suicide. Conversely, first responders may show higher levels of psychological resilience in the face of occupational trauma experiences. Some research exists on resilience, though little is known about suicide resilience in first responder populations.
We used latent profile analysis (LPA) on a treatment-seeking sample of first responders (N = 340) with measures of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), generalized anxiety, depression, suicidality, and resilience.
We determined the best fit was a five-class solution, including the following emotional distress categories: minimal (19 %), mild (33 %), moderate (8 %), moderately severe (27 %), and severe (13 %) emotional distress. In this study, all multivariate analyses of variance (MANOVAs) were statistically significant and had large effect sizes ranging from the lowest (resilience) to the largest (depression).
We used self-report assessments and not a clinical interview. Also, we did not have data on measures of substance use, emotional dysregulation (e.g., attachment), or trauma exposure.
This study underscores the critical need for developing and implementing transdiagnostic interventions that not only address the spectrum of emotional distress and suicidality but also actively enhance resilience among treatment-seeking first responders.
急救人员（即执法人员、消防员和紧急医疗技术人员/护理人员）比美国这些领域以外的成年工人遭受更高的职业创伤暴露，导致并发精神健康障碍的风险增加。反复和强烈的创伤暴露可能与个人因素结合，使他们面临更高的自杀风险。相反，急救人员在面对职业创伤经历时可能表现出更高水平的心理弹性。虽然对急救人员群体的自杀弹性知之甚少，但已有一些关于弹性的研究。
我们使用潜在剖面分析（LPA）对接受治疗的急救人员样本（N=340）进行分析，使用创伤后应激障碍（PTSD）、广泛性焦虑、抑郁、自杀意念和弹性的测量指标。
我们确定最佳拟合是五类解决方案，包括以下情绪困扰类别：轻微（19%）、轻度（33%）、中度（8%）、中度严重（27%）和严重（13%）情绪困扰。在这项研究中，所有多元方差分析（MANOVA）均具有统计学意义，且效应量从最低（弹性）到最大（抑郁）不等。
我们使用自我报告评估，而不是临床访谈。此外，我们没有关于物质使用、情绪失调（例如，依恋）或创伤暴露的测量数据。
这项研究强调了开发和实施跨诊断干预的迫切需要，这些干预不仅要解决情绪困扰和自杀意念的范围，还要积极增强接受治疗的急救人员的弹性。
