Mental Disorders in Firefighters Following Large-Scale Disaster

Area of Science:

• Occupational Health
• Psychiatry
• Disaster Mental Health

Background:

• Firefighting involves significant exposure to traumatic events.
• Existing research often fails to differentiate between routine duty and large-scale disaster exposure impacts on mental health.

Purpose of the Study:

• To systematically review and synthesize international literature on large-scale disaster exposure in firefighters.
• To examine the prevalence of trauma-related mental disorders in this population.
• To identify predictive factors for mental health disorders in firefighters.

Main Methods:

• Systematic review of cross-national studies.
• Narrative synthesis of predictive factors for mental disorders.
• Analysis of heterogeneous literature on disaster exposure.

Main Results:

• Firefighters exhibit elevated prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), major depressive disorder, and anxiety disorders compared to the general population.
• Incident-related factors (e.g., exposure severity and duration) are stronger predictors of PTSD and depression than sociodemographic factors.
• Findings support the hypothesis of increased mental disorder rates due to disaster exposure.

Conclusions:

• Large-scale disaster exposure significantly impacts firefighter mental health, leading to elevated rates of PTSD, depression, and anxiety.
• Focusing on incident characteristics is crucial for understanding and mitigating mental health risks in firefighters.
• Further research is needed to fully comprehend the effects of disaster exposure on firefighting personnel.