Post-traumatic stress disorder after terrorist attack in healthcare professionals

INTRODUCTION: On the date of 15 July 2016 a terrorist organization launched a terrorist attack using helicopters and heavy combat weapons in the city centers of Istanbul and Ankara simultaneously. Numerous civilian were hurt and many of them lost their lives during the attacks. Terrorism is a form of combat designed to cause the highest psychological influence on the masses. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is one of the most common psychological disorders after such disasters. The aim of this study is to determine the associated risk factors and PTSD rates in healthcare professionals who were on call during the 15 July 2016 terrorist attacks. METHOD: Since the hospital is in a neighbouring the street to where terror attacks occurred, all healthcare professionals ≥ 18 years of age who were on duty that night in the Dr. Ridvan Ege Training and Research Hospital and were auditory or visual witnesses of the event were included in the study as the first group while healthcare professionals who work in the same hospital but were not on duty that night were included as the control group. RESULTS: The mean post-traumatic diagnostic scale stress score of the control group was 11.87. The mean post-traumatic diagnostic scale stress score of the Group 1 was 21.91. There was a significant difference between the groups in terms of posttraumatic diagnostic scale stress score (p < 0.05). While the healthcare professionals on duty on July 15, 2016 (Group 1) had moderate-severe (21.91 ± 5.11) stress disorder, the healthcare professionals who were not at the hospital on July 15, 2016 (Control Group) had moderate stress disorder (11.87 ± 6.86). CONCLUSION: Our country is at risk from the fact that such attacks may be experienced again because of its unique conditions. The results of our work support the data on the high level of exposure to PTSD when exposed to a terrorist attack. For this reason, the identification of the characteristics of pre-traumatic health individuals at risk is useful in planning the presentation of preventive and curative health services. At the same time, there is a need for longer-term work and wider samples to reveal the psychological consequences of such attacks