Gender and Age Differences in Trauma and PTSD Among Dutch Treatment-Seeking Police Officers

Little is known about how age and gender are associated with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and traumatic experiences in treatment-seeking police offers. In this study, we examined 967 diagnostic files of police officers seeking treatment for PTSD. Six hundred twelve (63%) of the referred police officers were diagnosed with PTSD (n = 560) or partial PTSD (n = 52). Police officers reported on average 19.5 different types of traumatic events (range 1-43). Those who experienced a greater variety of traumatic events suffered from more PTSD symptoms. Also, women reported more often direct life-threatening or private events as their index trauma than men and suffered from more PTSD symptoms than their male colleagues. Results indicate that police officers experience a considerable number of different traumatic events, which is significantly associated with PTSD symptoms. The results highlight the importance of early detection of PTSD symptoms in the police forc

Associations of autozygosity with a broad range of human phenotypes

Abstract: In many species, the offspring of related parents suffer reduced reproductive success, a phenomenon known as inbreeding depression. In humans, the importance of this effect has remained unclear, partly because reproduction between close relatives is both rare and frequently associated with confounding social factors. Here, using genomic inbreeding coefficients (FROH) for >1.4 million individuals, we show that FROH is significantly associated (p < 0.0005) with apparently deleterious changes in 32 out of 100 traits analysed. These changes are associated with runs of homozygosity (ROH), but not with common variant homozygosity, suggesting that genetic variants associated with inbreeding depression are predominantly rare. The effect on fertility is striking: FROH equivalent to the offspring of first cousins is associated with a 55% decrease [95% CI 44–66%] in the odds of having children. Finally, the effects of FROH are confirmed within full-sibling pairs, where the variation in FROH is independent of all environmental confounding

Patients' representations of their end-stage renal disease: relation with mortality

BACKGROUND: Self-regulation theory explains how patients' illness perceptions influence self-management behaviour (e.g. via adherence to treatment). Following these assumptions, we explored whether illness perceptions of ESRD-patients are related to mortality rates. METHODS: Illness perceptions of 182 patients participating in the NECOSAD-2 study in the period between December 2004 and June 2005 were assessed. Cox proportional hazard models were used to estimate whether subsequent all-cause mortality could be attributed to illness perception dimensions. RESULTS: One-third of the participants had died at the end of the follow-up. Mortality rates were higher among patients who believed that their treatment was less effective in controlling their disease (perceived treatment control; RR = 0.71, P = 0.028). This effect remained stable after adjusting for sociodemographic and clinical variables (RR = 0.65, P = 0.015). CONCLUSIONS: If we consider risk factors for mortality, we tend to rely on clinical parameters rather than on patients' representations of their illness. Nevertheless, results from the current exploration may suggest that addressing patients' personal beliefs regarding the effectiveness of treatment can provide a powerful tool for predicting and perhaps even enhancing surviva