‘Getting on with the job’: A systematised literature review of secondary trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in policing within the United Kingdom (UK)

The aim of this review is to identify and critically examine existing research relating to secondary trauma and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) within UK police officers. A systematised literature review was conducted which identified 20 studies in police officers from Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland. These studies comprised of terrorist incidents, mass disasters, general policing duties and officers working in rape and child abuse investigations. Key themes emerged regarding understanding the impact of trauma, the influence of police culture and understanding coping mechanisms. It also found a number of methodological limitations within the studies which are likely to have impacted on the results. This review highlighted that trauma in UK policing is still not understood and there is a stigma associated with officers seeking help. Recognising the impact of trauma on police officers and how trauma has affected them is crucial to ensure an effective and compassionate workforce which delivers a better service to the public. It is hoped that this review will address gaps in existing knowledge within the literature, consider implications for practice, as well as recommendations to be taken forward in this crucial area of research

It’s why you get up in the morning’. A Straussian grounded theory study of coping in police officers who investigate rape and child abuse

Policing by its very nature has been widely recognised as being inherently stressful with little that can be done to prevent police officers’ exposure to both primary and secondary trauma. Officers involved in the investigation of child abuse and sexual offences have been further recognised as working in some of the most stressful and demanding roles in policing. However, there has been little research within this high-risk group of officers which seeks to understand how they cope with both the organisational and occupational stressors they are exposed to, as well as which strategies help them to ‘ get up in the morning’. Data were collected through twenty-three (23) semi-structured interviews, with Straussian Grounded Theory used as a framework to develop a model of coping. This study highlighted that although some officers were affected by the traumatic nature of their work, there were other risk factors present which appear to have impacted on them more significantly including ‘burnout’, ’compassion fatigue’ and ‘moral injury’. Protective factors were identified as ‘being in control’, ‘organisational, social and peer support’ as well as ‘having a purpose’ all of which impacted on an officer’s ability to cope with the work they do. The present findings extend our knowledge of key concepts relating to police officer coping which may help officers working in these high-risk roles to cope with challenges they face daily. Recommendations for further research on how to support this group of officers, as well as implications for practice are discussed

Developing a Measure of Information Seeking about Phishing

Phishing e-mails are fraudulent e-mails used to gain access to sensitive information or secure computer systems. They persuade users to click on malicious links, download attachments or provide sensitive information, such as usernames or passwords. One approach that aims to reduce people’s susceptibility to phishing is the provision of information to users regarding the phishing threat and the techniques used within phishing e-mails. In line with this, awareness campaigns are often used within organizations and wider society to raise awareness of phishing and encourage people to engage with protective information. However, the potential effectiveness of such approaches in reducing susceptibility remains uncertain. In particular, there is a lack of research investigating (i) whether the propensity to access such information may in itself influence susceptibility to phishing and (ii) the different factors that motivate people to engage with information in the first place. In order to understand how current and future interventions regarding phishing may be consumed by users, as well as their potential impact on phishing susceptibility, it is important to conduct theoretically based research that provides a foundation to investigate these issues. This study provides a first step in addressing this by developing and validating a theoretically based survey measure across two studies centred upon the constructs of protection motivation theory (perceived vulnerability, severity, self-efficacy and response efficacy) to assess the factors that influence whether people choose to keep up to date with protective information about phishing. This survey measure is then used within Study 2 to provide an initial investigation of the role of these constructs in (i) self-reported user intentions to keep up to date with phishing techniques in the future and (ii) phishing discrimination ability, assessed using a phishing quiz. Overall, higher perceived threat severity, self-efficacy and response efficacy were associated with greater intentions, while greater perceived vulnerability was associated with lower intentions. No relationship was found with phishing discrimination ability. By understanding the factors that influence user intention to maintain knowledge and seek information about phishing threats, it will be possible to ensure that, as effective interventions are developed, their potential impact can be maximized

MIGRANTS’ EXPERIENCE OF RACISM AND DISCRIMINATION IN IRELAND. Results of a survey conducted by The Economic and Social Research Institute for The European Union Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia

In this report we present the results of a survey conducted in 2005 as submitted to the European Union Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC) in October 2005. The study was carried out on a harmonised basis in 12 Member States. These are the results of the first survey on the issue of subjective experiences of racism and discrimination conducted in respect of a representative random sample of two groups of immigrants: employment permit holders and asylum seekers. Publication of the individual country studies was not permitted until after the release of the synthesis report Migrants’ Experiences of Racism and Xenophobia in 12 EU Member States, which was published by the EUMC in October 2006.

Does a monetary incentive improve the response to a postal questionnaire in a randomised controlled trial? : the MINT incentive study

Background: Sending a monetary incentive with postal questionnaires has been found to improve the proportion of responders, in research in non-healthcare settings. However, there is little research on use of incentives to improve follow-up rates in clinical trials, and existing studies are inconclusive. We conducted a randomised trial among participants in the Managing Injuries of the Neck Trial (MINT) to investigate the effects on the proportion of questionnaires returned and overall non-response of sending a £5 gift voucher with a follow-up questionnaire. Methods: Participants in MINT were randomised to receive either: (a) a £5 gift voucher (incentive group) or (b) no gift voucher (no incentive group), with their 4 month or 8 month follow-up questionnaire. We recorded, for each group, the number of questionnaires returned, the number returned without any chasing from the study office, the overall number of non-responders (after all chasing efforts by the study office), and the costs of following up each group. Results: 2144 participants were randomised, 1070 to the incentive group and 1074 to the no incentive group. The proportion of questionnaires returned (RR 1.10 (95% CI 1.05, 1.16)) and the proportion returned without chasing (RR 1.14 (95% CI 1.05, 1.24) were higher in the incentive group, and the overall non-response rate was lower (RR 0.68 (95% CI 0.53, 0.87)). Adjustment for injury severity and hospital of recruitment to MINT made no difference to these results, and there were no differences in results between the 4-month and 8-month follow up questionnaires. Analysis of costs suggested a cost of £67.29 per additional questionnaire returned. Conclusion: Monetary incentives may be an effective way to increase the proportion of postal questionnaires returned and minimise loss to follow-up in clinical trials

Breakfast and exercise contingently affect postprandial metabolism and energy balance in physically active males

The present study examined the impact of breakfast and exercise on postprandial metabolism, appetite and macronutrient balance. A sample of twelve (blood variables n 11) physically active males completed four trials in a randomised, crossover design comprising a continued overnight fast followed by: (1) rest without breakfast (FR); (2) exercise without breakfast (FE); (3) breakfast consumption(1859 kJ) followed by rest (BR); (4) breakfast consumption followed by exercise (BE). Exercise was continuous, moderate-intensity running (expending approximately 2·9MJ of energy). The equivalent time was spent sitting during resting trials. A test drink (1500 kJ) was ingested on all trials followed 90 min later by an ad libitum lunch. The difference between the BR and FR trials in blood glucose time-averaged AUC following test drink consumption approached significance (BR: 4·33 (SEM 0·14) v. FR: 4·75 (SEM 0·16) mmol/l; P¼0·08); but it was not different between FR and FE (FE: 4·77 (SEM 0·14) mmol/l; P¼0·65); and was greater in BE (BE: 4·97 (SEM 0·13) mmol/l) v. BR(P¼0·012). Appetite following the test drink was reduced in BR v. FR (P¼0·006) and in BE v. FE (P¼0·029). Following lunch, the most positive energy balance was observed in BR and least positive in FE. Regardless of breakfast, acute exercise produced a less positive energy balance following ad libitum lunch consumption. Energy and fat balance is further reduced with breakfast omission. Breakfast improved the overall appetite responses to foods consumed later in the day, but abrogated the appetite suppressive effect of exercise

AMPA/kainate glutamate receptor antagonists prevent posttraumatic osteoarthritis

Musculoskeletal disorders represent the 3rd greatest burden on health in the developed world. Osteoarthritis is the single greatest cause of chronic pain, has no cure, and affects 8.5 and 27 million in the UK and US respectively. Osteoarthritis commonly occurs after joint injury, particularly affecting younger patients. Painful joints are often treated with injections of steroid or hyaluronic acid (HA), but treatments to prevent subsequent joint degeneration remain elusive. In animals, joint injury increases glutamate release into the joint, acting on nerves to cause pain, and joint tissues to cause inflammation and degeneration. This study investigated synovial fluid glutamate concentrations and glutamate receptor (GluR) expression in injured human joints and compared efficacy of GluR antagonists with current treatments in a mouse model of injury-induced osteoarthritis (ACL rupture). GluRs were expressed in ligament and meniscus after knee injury and synovial fluid glutamate concentrations ranged from 19–129 µM. Intra-articular injection of NBQX (GluR antagonist), administered at the time of injury, substantially reduced swelling and degeneration in the mouse ACL rupture model. HA had no effect and depo-medrone reduced swelling for 1 day, but increased degeneration by 50%. Intra-articular administration of NBQX was both symptom and disease modifying to a greater extent than current treatments. There is an opportunity for repurposing related drugs, developed for CNS disorders, with proven safety in man, to prevent injury-induced osteoarthritis. This could quickly reduce the substantial burden associated with osteoarthritis

Unsupervised Multimodal Surface Registration with Geometric Deep Learning

This paper introduces GeoMorph, a novel geometric deep-learning framework designed for image registration of cortical surfaces. The registration process consists of two main steps. First, independent feature extraction is performed on each input surface using graph convolutions, generating low-dimensional feature representations that capture important cortical surface characteristics. Subsequently, features are registered in a deep-discrete manner to optimize the overlap of common structures across surfaces by learning displacements of a set of control points. To ensure smooth and biologically plausible deformations, we implement regularization through a deep conditional random field implemented with a recurrent neural network. Experimental results demonstrate that GeoMorph surpasses existing deep-learning methods by achieving improved alignment with smoother deformations. Furthermore, GeoMorph exhibits competitive performance compared to classical frameworks. Such versatility and robustness suggest strong potential for various neuroscience applications