Tobacco and alcohol use among firefighters during their first 3 years of service

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors : Journal of the Society of Psychologists in Addictive Behaviors
Suzy B GulliverNathan Kimbrel

Abstract

Firefighters constitute an understudied occupational group that are exposed to a great deal of occupational stress including potentially traumatic stress. As such, higher prevalence rates of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and substance use disorders have been observed within this population; however, very little is known about the trajectories of health-risk behaviors among firefighters in response to occupational stress over time. The present study enrolled 322 fire service recruits from 7 urban U.S. professional fire departments and followed them through the first 3 years of service. All enrollees were free of Axis I psychopathology at the time of baseline assessments, which were conducted while participants were still enrolled in the fire academy. We hypothesized that: (a) firefighters who used tobacco would have higher levels of alcohol use over time; and (b) firefighters with higher levels of traumatic exposure and mental health symptoms would evidence a stronger multisubstance risk pattern. Analyses provided support for our first hypothesis and revealed that depressive symptoms (but neither trauma exposure nor PTSD symptoms) moderated the alcohol-tobacco relationship. The clinical and public safety implications of t...Continue Reading

Citations

Feb 7, 2020·Occupational Medicine·S B GulliverE C Meyer
Mar 17, 2020·The Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery·Leah C TatebeAndrew Dennis
May 31, 2020·Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine·Brittany S HollerbachSara A Jahnke
Jun 23, 2020·The Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery·Leah C TatebeAndrew Dennis

❮ Previous
Next ❯

Related Concepts

Related Feeds

Anxiety Disorders

Discover the latest research on anxiety disorders including agoraphobia, panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder here.

© 2022 Meta ULC. All rights reserved