Occupational stress, anxiety and coping strategies in police officers.

BACKGROUND: Studies on occupational stress have shown that police officers are exposed to stressful events more often than other workers and this can result in impaired psychosocial well-being and physical health. AIMS: To measure the level of stress experienced, the consequences in terms of anxiety and the coping strategies adopted in a sample of police officers working in a large city in northern Italy. METHODS: We used the Police Stress Questionnaire and the Distress Thermometer to measure occupational stress, the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory to measure anxiety and the Brief COPE questionnaire to measure coping strategies. RESULTS: Six hundred seventeen police officers completed the questionnaire, a response rate of 34%. Differences between genders, sectors and roles emerged, but overall the study population generally demonstrated good use of positive coping strategies. Women in all operational service roles were more vulnerable to both organizational and operational stressors than men (P < 0.001), while in the interior department, men were more vulnerable to organizational stressors (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that for Italian police officers, training courses and support in dealing with occupational stress should take into account gender, role and type of work. Tailored training courses and support programmes could be useful and effective tools for preventing stress before it becomes chronic.

Anxiety and depression in rheumatologic diseases: the relevance of diagnosis and management.

The high prevalence of emotional disorders (anxiety, chronic stress, mood depression) in patients with pain during rheumatologic diseases (particularly fibromyalgia) is closely related to the common pathogenic mechanisms concerning emotions and pain. Therefore a prompt identification of any psychic component of pain, also by means of specific tools, is a must, because it can require an adjustment of the therapeutic approach by combining both an analgesic treatment and antidepressants and/or psychotherapeutic strategies.

Migraine and depression comorbidity: antidepressant options.

Migraine and mood depression demonstrate a high clinical relation and share, also with pain, neurobiological mechanisms, particularly neuro-transmettitorial and phlogistic ones. The choice of an antidepressant to treat both depression and migraine is determined by its efficacy, safety, and tolerability. Antidepressants share comparable effectiveness for the treatment of depressive disorders, but their efficacy on headache varies widely: Tricyclic antidepressants are more effective than SNRIs and SSRIs, but demonstrate dose-limiting side effects.