Guilt following trauma: is trauma nature related to treatment outcome? A study on comparing post treatment guilt decrease among veterans and policemen after traffic accidents and physical violence

Abstract

The risk of acquiring PTSD is higher when performing certain professions, this might be due to moral injury and it could be of importance to further study it in order to get a better understanding and eventually being able to treat PTSD more effectively. Introduction. During warfare, certain morally questionable or ethically ambiguous situations may arise, causing moral injury amongst service members, including feelings of guilt and PTSD. Policemen may experience similar traumatic events., Even road accidents (especially reckless drivers) can similarly lead to guilt and psychiatric problems, the most severe of them being PTSD. This is a problem because their feelings of guilt get intensified by the combination of causing death, moral injury, but also surviving the accident themselves whilst friends or family might have died due to their actions. The aim of this research is to find out if guilt is associated with the nature of trauma and if guilt decreases post treatment more after experiencing a traffic accident compared to physical violence. Method. Guilt levels of veterans and occupational related traumatized clients from ARQ Centrum’45, are being compared in this study from the beginning of treatment and post treatment. Results. Guilt shows a significant decrease post treatment in general. However, in interaction with a specific type of trauma only patients who experienced a fire or explosion showed a significant decrease in guilt after treatment. Conclusion. Moderate feelings of guilt seem to be experienced post traumas and guilt decrease is associated with the nature (combination) of trauma(s).