IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0268621.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Estimating the total prevalence of PTSD among the UK police force: Formal comment on Stevelink et al. (2020)

Author

Listed:
  • Chris R Brewin
  • Jessica K Miller
  • Brendan Burchell

Abstract

Two recent surveys have reported widely differing prevalence rates for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) within the U.K. police force. Stevelink et al. (2020) reported a rate of 3.9% whereas a survey conducted for the charity Police Care UK reported a rate of 20.6%. In this comment we discuss how definitions and methodological factors can impact prevalence rates. We consider a number of possible reasons for the discrepancy between the surveys, and conclude that it is most likely a method artefact. Stevelink et al.’s survey reported the prevalence of recent-onset DSM-IV PTSD only, whereas the Police Care UK survey reported the total ICD-11 PTSD and Complex PTSD prevalence, regardless of when in the person’s career the traumatic events occurred. Analysing the Police Care UK data using Stevelink et al.’s procedures produced practically identical prevalence rates, suggesting that the discrepancy was apparent rather than real.

Suggested Citation

  • Chris R Brewin & Jessica K Miller & Brendan Burchell, 2022. "Estimating the total prevalence of PTSD among the UK police force: Formal comment on Stevelink et al. (2020)," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 17(5), pages 1-5, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0268621
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0268621
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0268621
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0268621&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0268621?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sharon A M Stevelink & Elena Opie & David Pernet & He Gao & Paul Elliott & Simon Wessely & Nicola T Fear & Matthew Hotopf & Neil Greenberg, 2020. "Probable PTSD, depression and anxiety in 40,299 UK police officers and staff: Prevalence, risk factors and associations with blood pressure," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(11), pages 1-16, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Paulina Wróbel-Knybel & Michał Flis & Joanna Rog & Baland Jalal & Leszek Wołkowski & Hanna Karakuła-Juchnowicz, 2022. "Characteristics of Sleep Paralysis and Its Association with Anxiety Symptoms, Perceived Stress, PTSD, and Other Variables Related to Lifestyle in Selected High Stress Exposed Professions," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(13), pages 1-20, June.
    2. Sharon A M Stevelink & Simon Wessely & Nicola T Fear & Matthew Hotopf & Neil Greenberg, 2022. "Estimating the total prevalence of PTSD among the UK police force: Formal comment on Brewin, Miller and Burchell (2022)," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 17(5), pages 1-3, May.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0268621. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.