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The purpose of this study is to investigate the psychological consequences of human trafficking and to reveal the importance of appropriate post-trafficking psychological interventions. Specifically, this study provides a detailed analysis of human trafficking categories, as well as the characteristics of victims and traffickers’ motives. More recent data in the literature show that trauma-coerced attachments and complex post-traumatic stress disorder are also observed among trafficking survivors.

Each of the mentioned mental disorders is presented separately, and results are discussed throughout this study. Consequently, psychological interventions are proposed in accordance with the human trafficking category, survivors’ characteristics and needs and with the relevant personal risk factors determined among victims.

Sex trafficking can have a severe effect on a victim’s mental health, and mental health disorders are substantially higher in human trafficking victims compared to non-trafficked victims or general psychiatric population. Limitations, implications and future recommendations are discussed.

A limited number of past studies evaluated the mental health consequences and identified that survivors have a higher prevalence of anxiety disorders, depression disorders and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is associated with risk of suicide and chronic psychological impairment. The continued exposure to stress suffered by health-care workers (HCWs) during the COVID-19 pandemic can be considered a mass traumatic event and contribute to higher rates of PTSD in this population. The purpose of this research is to find out the prevalence and factors associated with PTSD among HCW in a general hospital.

The authors devised a survey to assess the prevalence of PTSD among HCWs in a general hospital and its relationship with sex, social support, profession, work experience in health care, time spent caring for COVID-19 patients and place in which the COVID-19-related activities were carried out. PTSD symptoms were assessed using the PCL-5, Portuguese version.

A total of 226 HCWs were included in the study. Provisional diagnosis of PTSD was made based on the PCL-5 responses, considering DSM-5 criteria and the cutoff score of 33. In total, 79 (35.0%) HCWs had a provisional diagnosis of PTSD, and a significant association was found between PTSD and time spent working with COVID-19 patients and between PTSD and place of work, namely, the COVID-19 emergency room and intensive care unit.

The results highlight the need for a reflection on the importance of mental health promotion among HCWs, specially in adverse conditions such as the current pandemic.

Post-migration stress is an important aspect of refugees’ mental health, but little is known about the relationship with insomnia. The purpose of this study was to investigate the assication between different post-migration stress factors and insomnia among Syrian refugees living in Norway.

The authors analysed survey data from the REFUGE study with 873 Syrian adults who resettled in Norway between 2015 and 2017. Potential participants were randomly selected from The Norwegian Population Register. Insomnia was measured using the Bergen Insomnia Scale. Perceived-discrimination, navigation difficulties, financial strain and loss of social status were measured via the refugee post-migration stress scale. The authors ran logistic regression analyses, controlling for socio-demographics, potentially traumatic experiences and symptoms of post-traumatic stress.

Overall, 59% (95% CI, 56%–62%) of the sample reported experiencing insomnia. In the fully-adjusted model, only financial strain and navigation difficulties were significantly associated with increased odds of insomnia. Loss of social status was also related to insomnia but only before adjusting for symptoms of post-traumatic stress.

Financial strain and navigation difficulties appear to be the most important post-migration stress factors in terms of insomnia among Syrian refugees living in Norway. Ameliorating these difficulties could potentially reduce insomnia among refugees. Since insomnia is a risk factor for the subsequent development of post-traumatic stress and depression, it is important to prevent or improve symptoms of insomnia among Syrian refugees, especially considering the high prevalence found in this study.

Lengthy and complex routes to specialist care may negatively affect clinical profiles of trauma survivors accessing mental health services. The purpose of this study was to describe the characteristics and referral pathways of a cohort of clients accepted by a specialist trauma service in England; and investigate the associations between referral pathways and clients’ clinical profiles, namely, pre-treatment levels of post-traumatic stress, depression, anxiety, stress and post-traumatic growth.

Data on 117 consecutive, accepted referrals were extracted from clients’ clinical records. Information on demographics, trauma histories, clinical presentations and referral pathways was synthesised through summary statistics. Correlational analyses were conducted to test associations with pre-treatment scores.

Clients accessing the service were highly complex and mostly experienced prolonged, interpersonal trauma. Pathways to the service varied, but 50% of the sample had at least four “steps” in their referral histories and seven previous clinical contacts. The average time between trauma and specialist referral was 16.34 years. The number of referral steps positively, significatively and moderately correlated with anxiety and stress at pre-treatment.

Limitations include issues around collecting past referral information, the small sample size for clients with available pre-treatment data and the lack of post-treatment scores.

This evaluation provides an informative overview of the characteristics and referral pathways of clients accessing a specialist trauma service. It also offers preliminary insights on the relationship between clients’ routes into the service and their clinical profiles. Practice, commissioning and research implications are discussed.

The purpose of this study is to explore mental health difficulties, including risk and protective factors, which may impact on symptom severity after exposure to crisis situations (war, terrorism and/or natural disasters), among first responders from uniformed services.

Peer-reviewed journal articles published in English between January 2012 and March 2022 were searched in ProQuest, Wiley, Google Scholar and PubMed databases. In total, 12 articles were obtained from an original screening of 94,058 articles. Full article texts were screened for content and quality by two reviewers, with high agreeability.

Post-traumatic stress disorder and depression were the most common diagnoses. Risk factors identified were pre-deployment factors of overweight, low cognitive ability and social support, existing emotional difficulties, negative childhood experiences and stressful life events; during crisis situations factors of higher frequency and subjective severity of combat, increased rates of combat stress reaction, high levels of concerns for life and family, more stressful mission position, threat of death/severe injury and high rate of killing the enemy; and post-deployment factors, such as low social support and physical health, lack of coping mechanisms and use of avoidance strategies and social stigma. Protective factors increasing resilience and lessening symptom severity were reported as pre-deployment cognitive ability, high social support, stable physical health, effective coping, post-traumatic growth and high levels of perceived adequacy in pre-deployment preparation and training. In addition to main findings, data about author(s), publication type, population, age, type of crisis and evaluation measures were extracted. Key findings and related theories, gaps in literature and recommendations are discussed.

As yet, however, research into the factors that could serve as risk and/or protective factors are not clearly indicated in terms of post-crisis recovery. As per the authors’ knowledge, this study is an initial approach to considering this area.

The emotion regulation research has drawn considerable attention from academicians and scholars in the contemporary world. As a result, the publications that are specifically dedicated to emotion regulation research are rapidly escalating. Therefore, this study aims to conduct a bibliometric analysis of research articles that have been published in the field of “emotion regulation.” The study primarily examines the growth and development of scholarly publications, seminal studies, influential authors, productive journals, research production and collaboration among countries, emerging research themes, research hotspots and thematic evolution of emotion regulation research.

The Web of Science Core Collection database was used to gather the study’s data, which was then analysed using VOSviewer and Bibliometrix, Biblioshiney open-source package of the R language environment.

The study’s results reveal that the research on emotion regulation has grown significantly over the last three decades. Notably, Emotion and Frontiers in Psychology are the most dominant and productive journals in the field of emotion regulation research. The most prominent author in the area of emotion regulation is identified as James Gross, followed by Gratz, Wang and Tull. The USA is at the forefront of research on emotion regulation and has collaborated with most of the developed countries like Germany, England and Canada. The keyword analysis revealed that the most potential research areas in the field of emotion regulation are functional magnetic resonance imaging, amygdala, post-traumatic stress disorder, borderline personality disorder, alexithymia, emotion dysregulation, depression, anxiety, functional connectivity, neuroimaging, mindfulness, self-regulation, resilience and coping. The thematic evolution reflects that the research on emotion regulation has recently focused on issues including Covid-19, non-suicidal self-injury, psychological distress, intimate partner violence and mental health.

The results of this study highlighted the current knowledge gaps in emotion regulation research and suggested areas for further investigation. The present study could be useful for researchers, academicians, planners, publishers and universities engaged in emotion regulation research.

From the authors’ personal and professional experiences, they have observed that autistic women are uniquely at risk of interpersonal trauma. Given the tendency for autistic women to be overlooked in research and practice, this study aims to rectify this by exploring the relevant literature and including the voices of autistic women throughout this paper.

This study completed a literature review of quantitative and qualitative data relating to exposure to interpersonal trauma in autistic women. This study also reviewed relevant discursive evidence available on in memoirs and reports. This study also included dialogue between us as authors from an auto/“Autie”-ethnographic position.

Both clinical literature and discursive evidence support the idea that autistic women are uniquely at risk of interpersonal trauma, in particular, sexual victimisation. Explanatory factors are considered. Studies exploring rates of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) were less consistent. Further evidence is required to better understand how autistic women experience and express PTSD and to inform assessment and treatment modifications.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper to integrate clinical literature and discursive evidence on the topic of interpersonal trauma in autistic women. It provides useful insights into the experiences of autistic women in this space, directions for urgently needed future research and modifications to clinical practice.

The most recent wave of the opioid epidemic in the USA has been complicated by a sharp increase in methamphetamine use. In addition, many people classified with opioid use disorder (OUD) and methamphetamine use disorder (MUD) present indications of psychiatric conditions. These diagnoses are also highly prevalent among people who are admitted to jails, but research conducted with this population is limited, due in part to the challenges associated with gaining access to local detention centers. This paper aims to examine the patterns of psychiatric conditions, OUD, and MUD among an understudied population to help inform the development of service delivery systems.

The present study was designed to assess the prevalence of OUD, MUD and common psychiatric conditions in a large sample of adults (n = 846) collected from four local jails. Diagnostic patterns were evaluated according to the current criteria established in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed; American Psychiatric Association, 2013).

More than half (57.3%) of the sample met criteria for MUD, one-third (37.2%) exceeded the threshold for an OUD diagnosis and 15.7% were classified with both conditions. Participants who met criteria for both MUD and OUD were significantly more likely to experience symptoms of major depression [adjusted odd ratios (aOR) = 1.76, 9, confidence intervals (CI) = 1.16–2.67], post-traumatic stress disorder (aOR = 2.51, 1.64–3.83), panic attacks (aOR = 3.24, 95% CI = 2.05–5.13), obsessive compulsive disorder (aOR = 2.74, 95% CI = 1.66–4.51) and antisocial personality (aOR = 3.03, 95% CI = 1.97–4.64).

These results, which were derived from an understudied population of adults detained in local jails, indicate the co-–occurrence of MUD and OUD are associated with certain psychiatric conditions.

Concerns have been raised regarding the mental health of firefighters. In response to this, existing literature reviews have highlighted the significant role of trauma in influencing mental health and the experience of post-traumatic stress within firefighters.

This paper builds on the existing reviews and makes an original contribution to knowledge by systematically reviewing research exploring additional factors that contribute to poor mental health in firefighters.

This review finds that factors such as sleep, occupational stress, length of service, coping style and social support all influence negative mental health within firefighters. However, this paper also suggests there are challenges to distinguishing the nature of these relationships, due to the possible bidirectional nature of the relationships and study limitations.

Finally, we conclude by suggesting a clear need for further research to explore the biological, psychological and social factors influencing mental health outcomes in firefighters and the direction of these relationships, in order to inform effective intervention and support.

This preliminary investigation aims to examine the psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on patients and staff within a high secure service.

To discern the connection between COVID-19-related distress and multiple factors, the study involved 31 patients and 34 staff who completed assessments evaluating coping strategies, resilience, emotional reactivity, ward atmosphere and work-related aspects.

Results demonstrated that around a third of staff (31.2%) experienced COVID-19-related distress levels that met the clinical cut-off for possible post-traumatic stress disorder. Emotional reactivity, staff shortages, secondary traumatic stress and coping strategies were all positively correlated with COVID-19-related-distress. Resilience was negatively associated with distress, thus acting as a potential mitigating factor. In comparison, the prevalence of distress among patients was low (3.2%).

The authors postulate that increased staff burdens during the pandemic may have led to long-term distress, while their efforts to maintain minimal service disruption potentially shielded patients from psychological impacts, possibly lead to staff “problem-focused coping burnout”. This highlights the need for in-depth research on the enduring impacts of pandemics, focusing on mechanisms that intensify or alleviate distress. Future studies should focus on identifying effective coping strategies for crisis situations, such as staff shortages, and strategies for post-crisis staff support.

The authors postulate that the added burdens on staff during the pandemic might have contributed to their distress. Nonetheless, staff might have inadvertently safeguarded patients from the pandemic’s psychological ramifications by providing a “service of little disruption”, potentially leading to “problem-focused coping burnout”. These findings underscore the imperative for further research capturing the enduring impacts of pandemics, particularly scrutinising factors that illuminate the mechanisms through which distress is either intensified or alleviated across different groups. An avenue worth exploring is identifying effective coping styles for pandemics.