%0 Journal Article
%T Psychological Distress and Post-Traumatic Symptoms Following Occupational Accidents
%A Marta Ghisi
%A Caterina Novara
%A Giulia Buodo
%A Matthew O. Kimble
%A Simona Scozzari
%A Arianna Di Natale
%A Ezio Sanavio
%A Daniela Palomba
%J Behavioral Sciences
%D 2013
%I MDPI AG
%R 10.3390/bs3040587
%X Depression and post-traumatic stress disorder frequently occur as a consequence of occupational accidents. To date, research has been primarily focused on high-risk workers, such as police officers or firefighters, and has rarely considered individuals whose occupational environment involves the risk of severe, but not necessarily life-threatening, injury. Therefore, the present study was aimed at assessing the psychological consequences of accidents occurring in several occupational settings (e.g., construction and industry). Thirty-eight victims of occupational accidents (injured workers) and 38 gender-, age-, and years of education-matched workers who never experienced a work accident (control group) were recruited. All participants underwent a semi-structured interview administered by a trained psychologist, and then were requested to fill in the questionnaires. Injured workers reported more severe anxious, post-traumatic and depressive symptoms, and poorer coping skills, as compared to controls. In the injured group low levels of resilience predicted post-traumatic symptomatology, whereas the degree of physical injury and the length of time since the accident did not play a predictive role. The results suggest that occupational accidents may result in a disabling psychopathological condition, and that a brief psychological evaluation should be included in the assessment of seriously injured workers.
%K work accidents
%K trauma
%K psychological distress
%K post-traumatic stress disorder
%K assessment
%U http://www.mdpi.com/2076-328X/3/4/587