Associations between trauma and substance use among healthcare workers and public safety personnel during the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic: the mediating roles of dissociation and emotion dysregulation
Creators: name: Patel, Herry
name: Easterbrook, Bethany
name: D'Alessandro-Lowe, Andrea M.
name: Andrews, Krysta
name: Ritchie, Kimberly
name: Hosseiny, Fardous
name: Rodrigues, Sara
name: Malain, Ann
name: O’Connor, Charlene
name: Schielke, Hugo
name: McCabe, Randi E.
name: Nicholson, Andrew A.
name: Lanius, Ruth
name: McKinnon, Margaret C.
Publisher: name: Taylor & Francis
Year: 2023
Subjects: subject: Molecular Biology
subject: Neuroscience
subject: Sociology
subject: FOS: Sociology
subject: Science Policy
subject: Mental Health
subject: Computational Biology
subject: Cardiology

description: <b>Background:</b> Given the highly stressful environment surrounding the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, healthcare workers (HCW) and public safety personnel (PSP) are at an elevated risk for adverse psychological outcomes, including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and alcohol/substance use problems. As such, the study aimed to identify associations between PTSD severity, related dissociation and emotion dysregulation symptoms, and alcohol/substance use problems among HCWs and PSP. <b>Methods:</b> A subset of data (<i>N </i>= 498; HCWs = 299; PSP = 199) was extracted from a larger study examining psychological variables among Canadian HCWs and PSP during the pandemic. Structural equation modelling assessed associations between PTSD symptoms and alcohol/substance use-related problems with dissociation and emotion dysregulation as mediators. <b>Results:</b> Among HCWs, dissociation fully mediated the relation between PTSD and alcohol-related problems (indirect effect <i>β </i>= .133, <i>p </i>= .03) and emotion dysregulation partially mediated the relation between PTSD and substance-related problems (indirect effect <i>β </i>= .151, <i>p </i>= .046). In PSP, emotion dysregulation fully mediated the relation between PTSD and alcohol-related problems (indirect effects <i>β </i>= .184, <i>p </i>= .005). For substance-related problems among PSP, neither emotion dysregulation nor dissociation (<i>p</i>s &gt;.05) had any effects. <b>Conclusion:</b> To our knowledge, this is the first study examining associations between PTSD severity and alcohol/substance use-related problems via mediating impacts of emotion dysregulation and dissociation among HCWs and PSP during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. These findings highlight dissociation and emotion dysregulation as important therapeutic targets for structured interventions aimed at reducing the burden of PTSD and/or SUD among Canadian HCWs or PSP suffering from the adverse mental health impacts of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Among healthcare workers, dissociation mediated relation between posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) severity and alcohol-related problems and emotion dysregulation mediated relation between PTSD severity and substance-related problems.Among public safety personnel, emotion dysregulation mediated relation between PTSD severity and alcohol-related problems. Neither dissociation nor emotion dysregulation mediated relation between PTSD severity and substance-related problems.Results underscore dissociation and emotion dysregulation as potential key therapeutic targets for intervention for healthcare workers and public safety personnel struggling with PTSD and comorbid alcohol/substance use-related problems. Among healthcare workers, dissociation mediated relation between posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) severity and alcohol-related problems and emotion dysregulation mediated relation between PTSD severity and substance-related problems. Among public safety personnel, emotion dysregulation mediated relation between PTSD severity and alcohol-related problems. Neither dissociation nor emotion dysregulation mediated relation between PTSD severity and substance-related problems. Results underscore dissociation and emotion dysregulation as potential key therapeutic targets for intervention for healthcare workers and public safety personnel struggling with PTSD and comorbid alcohol/substance use-related problems.