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

Transportation industry workers are at high risk for exposure to traumatic incidents in the workplace. A considerable number of those exposed to such incidents will develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, which leads to high rates of absenteeism and are costly to the public transit corporation and workplace safety compensation insurance.

To determine whether the newly implemented Best Practice Intervention (BPI) provides superior outcomeswhen compared with Treatment-as-Usual (TAU) interventions in improving workers' rates of return to work (RTW), decreasing duration of time lost from work and overall reduction in severity of PTSD symptoms 6 months after exposure.

A sequential mixed methods approach was used with qualitative analysis followed by a pre-post intervention design. Sixty-two participants were recruited to the (TAU) phase of the study and 79 to the (BPI) phase.

Significant differences were observed between the TAU and BPI groups in number of lost work days (TAU: 20 days vs. BPI: 52 days, p = 0.02). PTSD symptoms decreased with time (MPPS score: 51.3 vs. 24.35; p < 0.001). One-fifth of the participants (21 %) did not return to work by the end of the 6 months follow-up period.

The study demonstrated the value of workplace interventions in improving awareness of psychological symptoms after exposure to a traumatic incident and the value of screening for PTSD symptoms.