Evaluation of Tools to Assess Psychological Distress: How to Measure Psychological Stress Reactions in Citizen Responders– A Systematic Review

Abstract

Background Dispatched citizen responders are increasingly involved in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) resuscitation which can lead to severe stress. It is unknown which psychological assessment tools are most appropriate to evaluate psychological distress in this population. The aim of this systematic review was to identify and evaluate existing assessment tools used to measure psychological distress with emphasis on citizen responders who attempted resuscitation. Methods A systematic literature search conducted by two reviewers was carried out in March 2018 and revised in July 2018. Four databases were searched: PubMed, PsycInfo, Scopus, and The Social Sciences Citation Index. A total of 504 studies examining assessment tools to measure psychological distress reactions after acute traumatic events were identified, and 9 fulfilled the inclusion criteria for further analysis. The selected studies were assessed for methodological quality using the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network. Results The Impact of Event Scale (IES) and The Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R) were the preferred assessment tools, and were used on diverse populations exposed to various traumatic events. One study included lay rescuers performing bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation and this study used the IES. The IES and the IES-R also have proven a high validity in various other populations. The Clinical administered PTSD scale (CAPS) was applied in two studies. Though the CAPS is comparable to both the IES-R and the IES, the CAPS assess PTSD symptoms in general and not in relation to a specific experienced event, which makes the scale less suitable when measuring stress due to a specific resuscitation attempt. Conclusions The IES and the IES-R seem to be solid measures for psychological distress among people experiencing an acute psychological traumatic event. However, only one study has assessed psychological distress among citizen responders in OHCA for which the IES-R scale was used, and therefore, further research on this topic is warranted.

Prevalence and risk factors for post‐traumatic stress disorder in Japanese relatives of out‐of‐hospital cardiac arrest patients after receiving a pamphlet concerning the grieving process

“…[6][7][8] The IES-R has also shown a high validity in various other populations. 9 Exclusion criteria were: relatives who would not receive contact from our staff, or when there were no relatives of the victims. An IES-R score over 24 was defined as PTSD.…”

Traumatisme et résilience associés à la pandémie de la COVID-19 dans les villes de Bafoussam et de Dschang au Cameroun

“…Les questions sont cotées de 0 à 4. Elles permettent l’évaluation du syndrome de stress post-traumatique (SSPT) selon les critères du DSM [23] . L’adaptation de l’Impact of Event Scale (IES) de Horowitz et al [20] a été faite par Weiss et Marmar en 1997 [40] .…”

“…L’échelle est constituée de 22 items organisés en trois sous-échelles de 8 items chacune : la sous-échelle intrusion ; la sous-échelle évitement et la sous-échelle hyperactivité neurovégétative. Les études de validation indiquent une bonne structure factorielle et une bonne consistance interne en contexte multiculturel [10] , [21] , [23] , [24] , [38] . Elle a été appliquée à l’évaluation du stress post-traumatique en situation de quarantaine dans la population canadienne pendant l’épidémie de SARS de 2003 [32] .…”

Pregnancy experience and mental state of women undergoing fetoscopic surgery due to Twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome：A mixed methods study in Chinese women

“…The IES-R is used to evaluate the severity of post-traumatic stress and higher score represent a greater impact of certain life events. 11 For the IES-R, a score over 19 is the standard of high clinical attention and a patient with a score over 35 is more likely to be diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) ; 12 The SAS is used to assess the subjective feelings of adults in the past week ; 13 The Pregnancy Stress Scale was compiled by Chinese scholar Chen Zhanghui and is used to evaluate a women's stress during pregnancy. 14 This scale contains 30 items which mainly measure the stress caused by identification of parents' role, the stress caused by ensuring the health and safety of mother and fetus, and the stress caused by body's changes.…”