Samuel J Leonard, Shelby J McGrew, Antoine Lebeaut, Anka A Vujanovic
{"title":"PTSD Symptom Severity and Alcohol Use among Firefighters: The Role of Emotion Regulation Difficulties.","authors":"Samuel J Leonard, Shelby J McGrew, Antoine Lebeaut, Anka A Vujanovic","doi":"10.1080/15504263.2023.2260324","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objective: </strong>Heightened rates of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and alcohol use have been documented among firefighters. Emotion regulation difficulties (ERD) are clinically relevant to both PTSD and alcohol use. Few studies have examined the role of ERD in the association of PTSD symptoms with alcohol use severity and alcohol use motives among firefighters. Thus, the present investigation examined the indirect effect of PTSD symptom severity on alcohol use severity and alcohol use motives through ERD.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>The sample was comprised of 685 firefighters (<i>M</i>age = 38.65, <i>SD</i> = 8.57, 93.6% male) recruited from an urban fire department in the southern U.S. to complete an online survey. Indirect effects were calculated using 10,000 bootstrapped samples. Effects were examined after accounting for years of fire service, occupational stress, trauma load (<i>i.e.,</i> number of traumatic event types experienced); in models evaluating alcohol use motives as outcomes, other alcohol use motives (<i>i.e.,</i> alternate motives subscales) were included as additional covariates.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>First, ERD explained the association of PTSD symptom severity with alcohol use coping motives (β = .01, SE = .003, 95% CI [.004-.01]). Furthermore, ERD did not significantly account for the association of PTSD symptom severity with alcohol use severity (β = .02, SE = .01, 95% CI [-.004-.04]), alcohol use enhancement motives (β = -.003, SE = .002, 95%CI [-.007-.000]), alcohol use social motives (β = .004, SE = .002, 95% CI [-.000-.01]), or alcohol use conformity motives (β = -.002, SE = .002, 95% CI [-.006-.02]).</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Results demonstrated that, among firefighters, PTSD symptom severity is positively related to alcohol use coping motives through heightened ERD. Clinical implications and future directions are discussed.</p>","PeriodicalId":46571,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Dual Diagnosis","volume":" ","pages":"209-220"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5000,"publicationDate":"2023-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"1","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Dual Diagnosis","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/15504263.2023.2260324","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2023/11/1 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"PSYCHIATRY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 1
Abstract
Objective: Heightened rates of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and alcohol use have been documented among firefighters. Emotion regulation difficulties (ERD) are clinically relevant to both PTSD and alcohol use. Few studies have examined the role of ERD in the association of PTSD symptoms with alcohol use severity and alcohol use motives among firefighters. Thus, the present investigation examined the indirect effect of PTSD symptom severity on alcohol use severity and alcohol use motives through ERD.
Methods: The sample was comprised of 685 firefighters (Mage = 38.65, SD = 8.57, 93.6% male) recruited from an urban fire department in the southern U.S. to complete an online survey. Indirect effects were calculated using 10,000 bootstrapped samples. Effects were examined after accounting for years of fire service, occupational stress, trauma load (i.e., number of traumatic event types experienced); in models evaluating alcohol use motives as outcomes, other alcohol use motives (i.e., alternate motives subscales) were included as additional covariates.
Results: First, ERD explained the association of PTSD symptom severity with alcohol use coping motives (β = .01, SE = .003, 95% CI [.004-.01]). Furthermore, ERD did not significantly account for the association of PTSD symptom severity with alcohol use severity (β = .02, SE = .01, 95% CI [-.004-.04]), alcohol use enhancement motives (β = -.003, SE = .002, 95%CI [-.007-.000]), alcohol use social motives (β = .004, SE = .002, 95% CI [-.000-.01]), or alcohol use conformity motives (β = -.002, SE = .002, 95% CI [-.006-.02]).
Conclusions: Results demonstrated that, among firefighters, PTSD symptom severity is positively related to alcohol use coping motives through heightened ERD. Clinical implications and future directions are discussed.
期刊介绍:
Journal of Dual Diagnosis is a quarterly, international publication that focuses on the full spectrum of complexities regarding dual diagnosis. The co-occurrence of mental health and substance use disorders, or “dual diagnosis,” is one of the quintessential issues in behavioral health. Why do such high rates of co-occurrence exist? What does it tell us about risk profiles? How do these linked disorders affect people, their families, and the communities in which they live? What are the natural paths to recovery? What specific treatments are most helpful and how can new ones be developed? How can we enhance the implementation of evidence-based practices at clinical, administrative, and policy levels? How can we help clients to learn active recovery skills and adopt needed supports, clinicians to master new interventions, programs to implement effective services, and communities to foster healthy adjustment? The Journal addresses each of these perplexing challenges.