Am J Psychiatry 1996; 153:778-782
Copyright © 1996 by American Psychiatric Association
Posttraumatic stress symptoms following forensic dental identification: Mt. Carmel, Waco, Texas
JE McCarroll, CS Fullerton, RJ Ursano and JM Hermsen
Department of Military Psychiatry, Walter Recd Army Institute of Research, Bethesda, MD, USA.
OBJECTIVE: This study was conducted to determine risk factors for
posttraumatic stress in medical care professionals who perform postmortem
identifications. METHOD: Thirty-one dentists (29 men and two women) who had
identified the dead from the fire at the Branch Davidian compound in April
1993 were compared to 47 dentists (45 men and two women) who lived in the
area but had not identified any of these remains. Posttraumatic symptoms in
both groups were measured by using the Impact of Event Scale and the Brief
Symptom Inventory. For the remains handlers only, the subjective distress
of handling remains and the social support received during the procedure
were reported. RESULTS: Higher scores on the Impact of Event Scale
intrusion subscale, the overall Impact of Event Scale, and the
obsessive-compulsive subscale of the Brief Symptom Inventory were found for
the remains handlers than for the comparison group. Within the remains
handler group, distress was significantly related to the hours of exposure
to the remains, prior experience handling remains, age, and the support
received from spouses and co-workers during the identifications.
CONCLUSIONS: Posttraumatic stress symptoms can be expected in some health
professionals who perform postmortem identifications. Prior experience and
social support may mitigate some of these responses.
