[Relationship Between Occupational Trauma, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Depression - An Assessment of Systematic...

In a meta-review systematic reviews were assessed with AMSTAR, a validated instrument for the quality judgement. In a systematic search in Pubmed and PsycINFO during the period 2006 - 2016 8,223 hits were found. The assessment of titles and abstracts and the total publications were done by two authors.35 systematic reviews were included in the study. Most systematic reviews showed a low quality according to the AMSTAR criteria and included frequently primary studies without own control group. The four systematic reviews with at least moderate quality showed a significantly increased risk of soldiers after war deployment for the development of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression. Furthermore we found a clearly increased PTSD-risk in firefighters and paramedics.Because of the at most moderate quality of the included studies the authors came to the conclusion that a systematic review with high quality with inclusion of primary studies with own control group should be done. This paper shows despite the limited quality of the included studies for soldiers, firefighters and paramedics a high occupational PTSD-risk. Soldiers have also an increased depression-risk.