Je. Mccarroll et al., TRAUMATIC STRESS OF A WARTIME MORTUARY - ANTICIPATION OF EXPOSURE TO MASS DEATH, The Journal of nervous and mental disease, 181(9), 1993, pp. 545-551
Exposure to traumatic death is a risk factor for posttraumatic stress
disorder. For some groups, anticipation of such exposure may contribut
e to traumatic stress. We studied the anticipated stress of working in
the Operation Desert Storm mortuary in two groups prior to the arriva
l of the dead. We examined those who would handle remains (mortuary wo
rkers, N = 386, 330 men and 56 women) and those who would not (support
workers. N = 87, 67 men and 20 women). These two groups were a mixtur
e of volunteers and nonvolunteers as well as persons with and without
experience in handling the dead. The mortuary workers had higher level
s of preexposure distress than support workers; nonvolunteer mortuary
workers had higher levels of distress than volunteers. Female mortuary
workers had higher levels of distress than males, although this effec
t was modest. Experienced mortuary workers reported fewer intrusive an
d avoidant symptoms than did inexperienced workers. Those persons at h
ighest risk for generalized distress as well as intrusive and avoidant
symptoms were inexperienced nonvolunteer mortuary workers.