Handling posttraumatic stress disorder : Showing weakness means you lose

In prehospital medicine, psychological stress is common and part of the profession. On the one hand, this implies resilience; on the other hand, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can develop under the high psychological strain. The goal was to obtain an overview of the problem awareness among health care workers in prehospital medicine and identify possible networks for psychological trauma in Germany. The authors searched the internet in general and MEDLINE using key words. PTSD among health care workers in prehospital medicine is rare but can be severe. Generally speaking, help for traumatized helpers is possible in Germany and several institutions offer help. Most victims do not use the offered help, which is not well organized for health care workers. The German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine founded a new section "perspective resilience" in order to offer better help. Stress and psychological strain are common in health care workers in prehospital medicine, although most of the symptoms will resolve spontaneously. Nevertheless, after a psychological event, it is not possible to predict the course of the symptoms and the awareness among helpers is still low. To find the right therapy at the right time is critical. We still need better education and better networks in this area. Furthermore, research in this field is rare.