PTSD symptoms and suicidal thoughts and behaviors among firefighters

Research into the causes and prevention of suicide has been deemed a national priority, with a recent focus on sectors of the workforce, such as firefighters, who experience occupational hazards that may confer risk for suicide. Elevated levels of posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS), which show robust relationships with both suicidal ideation (SI) and suicide attempts, are common among firefighters. However, no study to date has investigated the relationship between PTSS and suicidality among firefighters. The current study therefore aimed to identify the degree to which PTSS were related were related to a history of SI and prior attempts in a national sample of firefighters (N = 893). Results revealed that greater PTSS were associated with greater risk of reporting lifetime SI and prior attempts, after controlling for other known risk factors for suicidality. Exploratory models investigating the unique contributions of individual PTSS clusters to suicidality found that numbing and re-experiencing PTSS were significantly related to SI, but only re-experiencing was related to prior attempts. The theoretical and clinical implications of these relationships, particularly among firefighters, are discussed.