TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2022//
TI  - Risk and resilience in trajectories of post-traumatic stress symptoms among first responders after the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake: 7-year prospective cohort study
JO  - British journal of psychiatry
A1  - Saito, Taku
A1  - van der Does, Florentine H. S.
A1  - Nagamine, Masanori
A1  - van der Wee, Nic J.
A1  - Shigemura, Jun
A1  - Yamamoto, Taisuke
A1  - Takahashi, Yoshitomo
A1  - Koga, Minori
A1  - Toda, Hiroyuki
A1  - Yoshino, Aihide
A1  - Vermetten, Eric
A1  - Giltay, Erik J.
SP  - ePub
EP  - ePub
VL  - ePub
IS  - ePub
N2  - BACKGROUND: First responders to disasters are at risk of developing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The trajectories of post-traumatic stress symptom severity differ among individuals, even if they are exposed to similar events. These trajectories have not yet been reported in non-Western first responders. AIMS: We aimed to explore post-traumatic stress symptom severity trajectories and their risk factors in first responders to the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake (GEJE) - a historically large earthquake that resulted in a tsunami and a nuclear disaster. <br><br>METHOD: A total of 55 632 Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (JGSDF) personnel dispatched to the GEJE were enrolled in this 7-year longitudinal cohort study. PTSD symptom severity was measured using the Impact of Event Scale-Revised. Trajectories were identified using latent growth mixture models (LGMM). Nine potential risk factors for the symptom severity trajectories were analysed using multinomial logistic regression. <br><br>RESULTS: Five symptom severity trajectories were identified: 'resilient' (54.8%), 'recovery' (24.6%), 'incomplete recovery' (10.7%), 'late-onset' (5.7%), and 'chronic' (4.3%). The main risk factors for the four non-resilient trajectories were older age, personal disaster experiences and working conditions. These working conditions included duties involving body recovery or radiation exposure risk, longer deployment length, later or no post-deployment leave and longer post-deployment overtime. <br><br>CONCLUSIONS: The majority of first responders to GEJE were resilient and developed few or no PTSD symptoms. A substantial minority experienced late-onset and chronic symptom severity trajectories. The identified risk factors can inform policies for prevention, early detection and intervention in individuals at risk of developing symptomatic trajectories.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 0007-1250
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1192/bjp.2022.2
ID  - ref1
ER  -