TRAUMATIC STRESS OF A WARTIME MORTUARY - ANTICIPATION OF EXPOSURE TO MASS DEATH

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.