Ukrainian rescuers in local armed conflict conditions: how does it affect the psyche?
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Дата
2022-04-06
Назва журналу
Номер ISSN
Назва тому
Видавець
Minerva Psychiatry, Edizioni Minerva Medica (Italy)
Анотація
BACKGROUND: Currently, armed conflicts around the world are not decreasing. For the first time, the mental state and behavioral changes of rescuers who were involved not during natural/man-made disasters but directly in the area of armed actions for fulfilling their professional tasks were investigated.
METHODS: The study involved males (N.=331), aged 24-59, Ukrainian rescuers of pyrotechnic and emergency rescue units. A specially designed questionnaire (37 items), and an interview method were used.
RESULTS: Types of stressogenic situations, characteristics of rescuers’ threats and fears, impact of experienced traumatic events on their mental health, signs indicating negative changes in behavior, attitudes of the relatives and local residents to the rescuers’ activities in the battle area have been revealed. There were identified three groups of stressful situations in which rescuers fell: professional, situational-psychogenic and personal. The most harmful fears were falling under shelling-attacks (45.9%), threat to own life/health (79.5%), threat of captivity (37%), wounding/death of colleagues-rescuers (24.9%), wounding/injuries/doom of civilians (64.7%).
CONCLUSIONS: Main changes in rescuers’ behavior were observed in emotional, value-semantic, cognitive and communicative spheres. Duration of staying in battle area had a direct influence on the rescuers which caused great growth of post-traumatic symptoms and their exacerbation: 15% of rescuers showed signs of behavioral regression. Traumatic stress emerged in rescuers was associated with the sudden reprogramming of human reserves for survival in extreme situations. A number of preventive measures was recommended for unlocking the adaptive resource potential that acted as an internal defense mechanism against stress and overload.
Опис
Ключові слова
Stress disorders, traumatic, acute, Anxiety, Behavior therapy, Mind-body therapies
Бібліографічний опис
Timchenko, O., Onishchenko, N., Perelygina, L., Prykhodko, I., Lefterov, V., & Ivanchenko, A. (2022). Ukrainian rescuers in local armed conflict conditions: how does it affect the psyche? Minerva Psychiatry, 63(2), 159-170. DOI: 10.23736/S2724-6612.21.02242-9 https://doi.org/10.23736/S2724-6612.21.02242-9 https://www.minervamedica.it/en/journals/minerva-psychiatry/article.php?cod=R17Y2022N02A0159