September – October 2009 http://pdm.medicine.wisc.edu Prehospital and Disaster Medicine BRIEF REPORT Abstract Introduction: The effect of immediate exposure to traumatic events and gen- der differences is under-studied in the literature. Most studies focus on acute stress disorder (ASD) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) phases in order to measure gender differences, and tend to neglect the immediate expo- sure to the disaster. Hypothesis: The main hypothesis was that female rescue personnel would exhibit higher levels of acute stress symptoms, dissociation, and depressive symptoms in the 24 hours following a traumatic event. Methods: Twenty-three rescue personnel participated in a search and rescue operation at the Bet-Yehoshua train crash in Israel. The rescue personnel group was divided based on gender. Each participant completed a demo- graphic questionnaire including questions that assessed psychological symp- toms and issues such as perceived threat to life, the Impact of Event Scale Revised (IES-R), the Dissociative Experience Scale (DES), and the Center of Epidemiologic Studies Depression questionnaire (CES-D). Statistical infer- ences were calculated using t-tests and chi-square tests, along with testing of covariance (MANCOVA) in order to indentify which factors are related to psychiatric symptomatology following the immediate exposure to disaster. Results: The results suggest that among rescue personnel, women did not differ in their levels of acute stress, dissociation, and depressive symptoms from men. Conclusions: These results suggest the possibility that the gender differences in reactions to traumatic events do not emerge in the acute stress reactions (ASR) phase (up to 24 hours after the event), but later on when people have time to process the trauma. Another possibility that may explain the discrep- ancy between this study and the common knowledge in the literature is that women rescue personnel are considered a highly selected group, which does not reflect on the general population of women. More studies are needed in order to substantiate these results. Palgi Y, Ben-Ezra M, Essar N, Sofer H, Haber Y: Acute stress symptoms, dissociation, and depression among rescue personnel 24 hours after the Bet- Yehoshua train crash in Israel: The effects of gender. Prehosp Disaster Med 2009;24(5):433–437. 1. Department of Psychology, Sharet Building,Tel Aviv University,Tel-Aviv, Israel 2. Department of Social Work, Ariel University Center of Samaria, Ariel, Israel 3. Psagot Institute, Ramat-Gan, Israel 4. Home Front Command, Israel Defense Forces 5. Department of Psychology and Education, The Open University, Raanana, Israel Correspondence: Dr. Menachem Ben-Ezra Department of Social Work PO Box 3 Ariel University Center of Samaria Ariel, 40700 Israel E-mail: menbe@ariel.ac.il Keywords: acute stress symptoms; domestic disaster; gender; post-traumatic stress disorder; rescue personnel Abbreviations: CES-D = Center of Epidemiologic Studies- Depression DES = Dissociative Experience Scale IES-R = Impact of Event Scale-Revised PTSD = post-traumatic stress disorder Received: 04 August 2008 Accepted: 11 September 2008 Revised: 01 October 2008 Web publication: 05 October 2009 Acute Stress Symptoms, Dissociation, and Depression among Rescue Personnel 24 Hours after the Bet-Yehoshua Train Crash in Israel: The Effects of Gender Yuval Palgi, PhD; 1 Menachem Ben-Ezra, PhD; 2 Nir Essar, MD; 3 Hilik Sofer, MA; 4 Yeela Haber, BA 5 Introduction Exposure to dead bodies is considered one of the most traumatizing experi- ences for rescue personnel and a risk factor for consequent post-traumatic symptoms and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). 1–3 The psychiatric lit- erature show that the impact of large-scale disasters affects rescue forces for a long period of time, thus resulting in long-term post-traumatic symptoms. 2,3 A substantial number of studies checked for post-traumatic stress among res- cue personnel. 1–6 However, few studies have examined acute stress symptoms, dissociation, and depression within the first day after exposure to a traumatic event. 7 Another important factor to be assessed among rescue personnel is the effects of gender differences, which has only been addressed by few studies. 1,5–8