Emergency department staff and emergency medicine personnel in particular are at risk of various types of occupational stresses such as mental traumas. Little information is available about possibility and rate of PTSD among emergency medicine staff in Iran and the world as well. This study is to cover the prevalence of and affecting factors on the PTSD among the EM personnel in Iran.

In an analytic-descriptive study in 2009, 150 emergency medicine personnel of Kashan and Arak city were investigated to estimate both the PTSD rate and severity of mental traumas. Standard questionnaires of IES 15 and PTSS 10 along with DSM- IV criteria were utilized in this regard.

121 out of 150 subjects answered the questionnaires. All the clients were examined in terms of DSM- IV criteria in which 44 (36.4%) ones met the PTSD diagnostic criteria. In the IES scale, one third of the EM staff belonged to the event severely affected group. 11 (9%) subjects received a 5 or more PTSD score demonstrating a relatively severe reaction in them. Marital status had a meaningful correlation with PTSD condition, so that the single were more likely to meet the PTSD criteria.

According to the study, rate of PTSD and severity of the traumas resulted among the emergency medicine personnel were both high to a great extent. It seems that these individuals are severely exposed to occupational stress and the pertinent complications, and further attention should be given to their psychological condition then.