Network analysis of posttraumatic stress disorder in a treatment-seeking sample of US firefighters and emergency medical technicians

BACKGROUND: First responders, like firefighters and EMTs, face high stress due to regular exposure to traumatic events. To provide effective treatment, understanding the relationship between PTSD symptoms is essential.

METHOD: A study with 342 treatment-seeking firefighters/EMTs was done using a partial correlation network analysis of an eight-factor model. A Bayesian directed acyclic graph was utilized to estimate the causal relationships between symptom clusters.

RESULTS: About 37% of the participants showed probable PTSD signs. The strongest connections were between internal and external re-experiencing. The Bayesian graph indicated that internal re-experiencing might predict other PTSD symptoms such as external re-experiencing, negative feelings, dysphoric arousal, and avoidance.

LIMITATIONS: The study's participants were seeking treatment, so the results might not be applicable to all firefighters/EMTs.

CONCLUSIONS: The findings reinforce previous research highlighting the significant role of re-experiencing in PTSD development and persistence. Further studies should explore non-treatment-seeking first responders and consider firefighters and EMTs separately.