Traumatic events exposure aftermath in emergency personnel: Psychological consequences after the March 11, 2004, terrorist attack in Madrid

This paper aims to explore psychologi-cal aftermath of traumatic exposure in emergency personnel involved in rescue efforts and first aid after the March 11, 2004, terrorist attacks in Ma-drid. A group of 165 individuals (30,1% males and 69,9% females), with a mean age of 34,9 years, including psychologists, policemen, physi-cians, social workers, etc, was interviewed in de-tail. Data regarding prevalence rates of panic at-tack, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), de-pression, and drugs and alcohol consumption one-month and six-months after the terrorist attacks are presented and discussed. Generally, emer-gency personnel manifested intense peritraumatic reactions, with higher prevalences than in general population, due to a high degree of exposition to traumatic consequences of the train bombings; however, due to they were mostly well-trained professionals and with previous experience in disaster management, there was a good emotional management that did not allow chronification of such reactions, that could facilitated the onset and development of PTSD and depression, lower prevalence than in general population.