Post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms among military health professionals in Turkey

This descriptive study investigated traumatic experiences and post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms among military professionals in Turkey. The sample included 225 military health professionals who were in charge in districts in which traumatic events occurred frequently in the past decade. The Impact of Event Scale, Beck Anxiety Inventory, and Symptom Checklist were used to obtain data in the study. More than one-half of the health professionals had experienced at least one traumatic event. Those who had a history of traumatic experience and loss of relatives or friends reported more symptoms than did those who had not experienced traumatic events. As expected, health professionals who had traumatic experiences were more likely to have higher Impact of Event Scale scores than were those who had not experienced physical or psychological trauma. The findings indicate that health professionals are as affected by traumatic events as are those in other settings or occupations. Future research should focus on the long-term effects of post-traumatic stress among health professionals.