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Does posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) affect performance?

Vicki R LeBlanc1, Cheryl Regehr, R Blake Jelley

  • 1Orange Transport Medicine, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. vicki.leblanc@utoronto.ca

The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease
|August 19, 2007
PubMed
Summary
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Police recruits with trauma symptoms performed similarly to their peers in a simulated stressful event. Prior critical incident exposure did not impact performance, suggesting no increased risk for these individuals.

Area of Science:

  • Psychology
  • Occupational Health
  • Emergency Services Research

Background:

  • High stress occupations, including emergency services, report significant traumatic stress symptoms.
  • Understanding the impact of these symptoms on job performance is crucial for personnel welfare and public safety.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the relationship between prior critical incident exposure, current posttraumatic stress symptoms, and performance in police recruits during a simulated acute stress event.
  • To determine if police recruits with elevated trauma symptoms exhibit impaired judgment, communication, or situational control.

Main Methods:

  • A simulated stressful policing scenario was administered using a responsive video simulator.
  • Participant performance was assessed by three independent, blinded raters.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Traumatic stress symptoms were measured using the Impact of Events Scale-Revised (IES-R).
  • Prior critical incident exposure was assessed via the Critical Incident History Questionnaire.

    • Main Results:

    • No significant correlation was found between previous critical incident exposure and performance.
    • Current posttraumatic stress symptoms did not correlate with performance levels in the simulated scenario.
    • Recruits with high or severe trauma symptoms showed no measurable impairments in judgment, communication, or situation control compared to those with lower or no symptoms.

    Conclusions:

    • Findings suggest that police recruits with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) do not inherently exhibit performance deficits in judgment or communication during acute stress.
    • There is no evidence to support the belief that police recruits with PTSD pose an increased risk to themselves or others due to impaired performance in stressful situations.