Best practice intervention for post-traumatic stress disorder among transit workers.

Area of Science:

• Occupational Health
• Psychotraumatology
• Workplace Mental Health

Background:

• Transportation workers face high occupational trauma exposure.
• Traumatic incidents can lead to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, increasing absenteeism and costs.
• Effective interventions are needed to mitigate PTSD impact in this high-risk group.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare the efficacy of a new Best Practice Intervention (BPI) against Treatment-as-Usual (TAU) for transportation workers.
• To evaluate BPI's impact on return-to-work rates, lost work duration, and PTSD symptom severity.
• To assess outcomes 6 months post-exposure to workplace trauma.

Main Methods:

• A sequential mixed-methods approach combining qualitative analysis and a pre-post intervention design.
• Study included 62 participants in the TAU phase and 79 in the BPI phase.
• Data collection focused on work status and PTSD symptom severity (MPPS score).

Main Results:

• The BPI group had significantly fewer lost work days (52 days) compared to the TAU group (20 days) (p=0.02).
• PTSD symptoms significantly decreased in both groups over time (MPPS score from 51.3 to 24.35; p<0.001).
• 21% of participants did not return to work by the 6-month follow-up.

Conclusions:

• Workplace interventions like BPI enhance awareness of psychological symptoms post-trauma.
• Screening for PTSD symptoms is valuable for timely and effective treatment.
• BPI shows promise in improving recovery outcomes for traumatized transportation workers.