Cargando…

The role of automatic defensive responses in the development of posttraumatic stress symptoms in police recruits: protocol of a prospective study

Background: Control over automatic tendencies is often compromised in challenging situations when people fall back on automatic defensive reactions, such as freeze – fight – flight responses. Stress-induced lack of control over automatic defensive responses constitutes a problem endemic to high-risk...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Koch, Saskia B. J., Klumpers, Floris, Zhang, Wei, Hashemi, Mahur M., Kaldewaij, Reinoud, van Ast, Vanessa A., Smit, Annika S., Roelofs, Karin
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Taylor & Francis 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5757225/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29321826
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/20008198.2017.1412226
_version_ 1783290828083429376
author Koch, Saskia B. J.
Klumpers, Floris
Zhang, Wei
Hashemi, Mahur M.
Kaldewaij, Reinoud
van Ast, Vanessa A.
Smit, Annika S.
Roelofs, Karin
author_facet Koch, Saskia B. J.
Klumpers, Floris
Zhang, Wei
Hashemi, Mahur M.
Kaldewaij, Reinoud
van Ast, Vanessa A.
Smit, Annika S.
Roelofs, Karin
author_sort Koch, Saskia B. J.
collection PubMed
description Background: Control over automatic tendencies is often compromised in challenging situations when people fall back on automatic defensive reactions, such as freeze – fight – flight responses. Stress-induced lack of control over automatic defensive responses constitutes a problem endemic to high-risk professions, such as the police. Difficulties controlling automatic defensive responses may not only impair split-second decisions under threat, but also increase the risk for and persistence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. However, the significance of these automatic defensive responses in the development and maintenance of trauma-related symptoms remains unclear due to a shortage of large-scale prospective studies. Objective: The ‘Police-in-Action’ study is conducted to investigate the role of automatic defensive responses in the development and maintenance of PTSD symptomatology after trauma exposure. Methods: In this prospective study, 340 police recruits from the Dutch Police Academy are tested before (wave 1; pre-exposure) and after (wave 2; post-exposure) their first emergency aid experiences as police officers. The two waves of data assessment are separated by approximately 15 months. To control for unspecific time effects, a well-matched control group of civilians (n = 85) is also tested twice, approximately 15 months apart, but without being frequently exposed to potentially traumatic events. Main outcomes are associations between (changes in) behavioural, psychophysiological, endocrine and neural markers of automatic defensive responses and development of trauma-related symptoms after trauma exposure in police recruits. Discussion: This prospective study in a large group of primary responders enables us to distinguish predisposing from acquired neurobiological abnormalities in automatic defensive responses, associated with the development of trauma-related symptoms. Identifying neurobiological correlates of (vulnerability for) trauma-related psychopathology may greatly improve screening for individuals at risk for developing PTSD symptomatology and offer valuable targets for (early preventive) interventions for PTSD.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-5757225
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2017
publisher Taylor & Francis
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-57572252018-01-10 The role of automatic defensive responses in the development of posttraumatic stress symptoms in police recruits: protocol of a prospective study Koch, Saskia B. J. Klumpers, Floris Zhang, Wei Hashemi, Mahur M. Kaldewaij, Reinoud van Ast, Vanessa A. Smit, Annika S. Roelofs, Karin Eur J Psychotraumatol Study Protocol Background: Control over automatic tendencies is often compromised in challenging situations when people fall back on automatic defensive reactions, such as freeze – fight – flight responses. Stress-induced lack of control over automatic defensive responses constitutes a problem endemic to high-risk professions, such as the police. Difficulties controlling automatic defensive responses may not only impair split-second decisions under threat, but also increase the risk for and persistence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. However, the significance of these automatic defensive responses in the development and maintenance of trauma-related symptoms remains unclear due to a shortage of large-scale prospective studies. Objective: The ‘Police-in-Action’ study is conducted to investigate the role of automatic defensive responses in the development and maintenance of PTSD symptomatology after trauma exposure. Methods: In this prospective study, 340 police recruits from the Dutch Police Academy are tested before (wave 1; pre-exposure) and after (wave 2; post-exposure) their first emergency aid experiences as police officers. The two waves of data assessment are separated by approximately 15 months. To control for unspecific time effects, a well-matched control group of civilians (n = 85) is also tested twice, approximately 15 months apart, but without being frequently exposed to potentially traumatic events. Main outcomes are associations between (changes in) behavioural, psychophysiological, endocrine and neural markers of automatic defensive responses and development of trauma-related symptoms after trauma exposure in police recruits. Discussion: This prospective study in a large group of primary responders enables us to distinguish predisposing from acquired neurobiological abnormalities in automatic defensive responses, associated with the development of trauma-related symptoms. Identifying neurobiological correlates of (vulnerability for) trauma-related psychopathology may greatly improve screening for individuals at risk for developing PTSD symptomatology and offer valuable targets for (early preventive) interventions for PTSD. Taylor & Francis 2017-12-20 /pmc/articles/PMC5757225/ /pubmed/29321826 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/20008198.2017.1412226 Text en © 2017 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Study Protocol
Koch, Saskia B. J.
Klumpers, Floris
Zhang, Wei
Hashemi, Mahur M.
Kaldewaij, Reinoud
van Ast, Vanessa A.
Smit, Annika S.
Roelofs, Karin
The role of automatic defensive responses in the development of posttraumatic stress symptoms in police recruits: protocol of a prospective study
title The role of automatic defensive responses in the development of posttraumatic stress symptoms in police recruits: protocol of a prospective study
title_full The role of automatic defensive responses in the development of posttraumatic stress symptoms in police recruits: protocol of a prospective study
title_fullStr The role of automatic defensive responses in the development of posttraumatic stress symptoms in police recruits: protocol of a prospective study
title_full_unstemmed The role of automatic defensive responses in the development of posttraumatic stress symptoms in police recruits: protocol of a prospective study
title_short The role of automatic defensive responses in the development of posttraumatic stress symptoms in police recruits: protocol of a prospective study
title_sort role of automatic defensive responses in the development of posttraumatic stress symptoms in police recruits: protocol of a prospective study
topic Study Protocol
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5757225/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29321826
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/20008198.2017.1412226
work_keys_str_mv AT kochsaskiabj theroleofautomaticdefensiveresponsesinthedevelopmentofposttraumaticstresssymptomsinpolicerecruitsprotocolofaprospectivestudy
AT klumpersfloris theroleofautomaticdefensiveresponsesinthedevelopmentofposttraumaticstresssymptomsinpolicerecruitsprotocolofaprospectivestudy
AT zhangwei theroleofautomaticdefensiveresponsesinthedevelopmentofposttraumaticstresssymptomsinpolicerecruitsprotocolofaprospectivestudy
AT hashemimahurm theroleofautomaticdefensiveresponsesinthedevelopmentofposttraumaticstresssymptomsinpolicerecruitsprotocolofaprospectivestudy
AT kaldewaijreinoud theroleofautomaticdefensiveresponsesinthedevelopmentofposttraumaticstresssymptomsinpolicerecruitsprotocolofaprospectivestudy
AT vanastvanessaa theroleofautomaticdefensiveresponsesinthedevelopmentofposttraumaticstresssymptomsinpolicerecruitsprotocolofaprospectivestudy
AT smitannikas theroleofautomaticdefensiveresponsesinthedevelopmentofposttraumaticstresssymptomsinpolicerecruitsprotocolofaprospectivestudy
AT roelofskarin theroleofautomaticdefensiveresponsesinthedevelopmentofposttraumaticstresssymptomsinpolicerecruitsprotocolofaprospectivestudy
AT kochsaskiabj roleofautomaticdefensiveresponsesinthedevelopmentofposttraumaticstresssymptomsinpolicerecruitsprotocolofaprospectivestudy
AT klumpersfloris roleofautomaticdefensiveresponsesinthedevelopmentofposttraumaticstresssymptomsinpolicerecruitsprotocolofaprospectivestudy
AT zhangwei roleofautomaticdefensiveresponsesinthedevelopmentofposttraumaticstresssymptomsinpolicerecruitsprotocolofaprospectivestudy
AT hashemimahurm roleofautomaticdefensiveresponsesinthedevelopmentofposttraumaticstresssymptomsinpolicerecruitsprotocolofaprospectivestudy
AT kaldewaijreinoud roleofautomaticdefensiveresponsesinthedevelopmentofposttraumaticstresssymptomsinpolicerecruitsprotocolofaprospectivestudy
AT vanastvanessaa roleofautomaticdefensiveresponsesinthedevelopmentofposttraumaticstresssymptomsinpolicerecruitsprotocolofaprospectivestudy
AT smitannikas roleofautomaticdefensiveresponsesinthedevelopmentofposttraumaticstresssymptomsinpolicerecruitsprotocolofaprospectivestudy
AT roelofskarin roleofautomaticdefensiveresponsesinthedevelopmentofposttraumaticstresssymptomsinpolicerecruitsprotocolofaprospectivestudy