Psychosocial interventions for prevention of psychological disorders in law enforcement officers
Citation: Peñalba V, McGuire H, Leite JR. Psychosocial interventions for prevention of psychological disorders in law enforcement officers. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 2008;(3):CD005601.
Language: Abstract available in EN and ES. Plain language summary available in EN, ES, and MS. Full text available in EN.
Free to view: Yes.
Funding sources: Associaçao Fundo de Incentivo a Psicofarmacologia (Brazil), Brazilian Cochrane Centre.
What is this? People in law enforcement are exposed to stresses at work that are likely to increase during health emergencies and disasters. In this Cochrane review, the authors searched for randomised and quasi-randomised trials of psychosocial interventions for police or military police officers. They did not restrict their searches by language of publication and did the search in May 2008. They included 10 studies, four of which (225 participants) contributed data to this review. These were from Sweden (1 study) and the USA (3). They also identified two articles that were awaiting assessment.
What works: The authors found low-quality evidence from individual trials that police officers benefit from psychosocial interventions in terms of anxiety, depression, sleep problems, cynicism, anger, post-traumatic stress disorder, marital problems, and distress.
What doesn’t work: Nothing noted.
What is uncertain: The duration of any benefit from psychosocial interventions on psychological symptoms in law-enforcement officers is uncertain.
Implications: The authors of the review stated that there was insufficient evidence to conclude whether or not law enforcement officers benefited from psychosocial interventions to reduce psychological symptoms.
Other considerations: The authors of the review discussed their findings in the context of occupation.
This summary was prepared by Catherine Haynes, checked by Sydney Johnson and finalised by William Summerskill.