Posttraumatic stress symptoms among school personnel after the Jokela school shooting : A longitudial study of exposure, interventions, and symptom changes

Objectives. School personnel who are exposed to school violence are at risk in developing post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In Finland there have been two such events in recent years, Jokela school shooting on 7.11.2007 and Kauhajoki school shooting about a year later. The aim of the present study was to examine the presence and change in PTSD symptoms during the first year after the Jokela school shooting. A second aim was to study how the initial exposure and treatment affects the symptom levels of PTSD. There were four hypotheses: 1) The PTSD symptoms are higher for the people who were exposed to the school shooting than for the people who did not face the stressor. 2) The PTSD symptoms increase in the follow up for the people at the school which was not attacked because of the second incident brought up the memories from the Jokela school shooting. 3) Those who have greater exposure to the shooting will have higher level of PTSD symptoms at both 4 and 11 months after the shooting than those who were not directly exposed to the shooting. 4) The PTSD symptoms are reduced more in the group that starts treatment right after the traumatic event than in other groups. Methods. A sample of 24 members of Jokela school personnel were examined four months after the incident and 16 were reassessed 11 month after the incident. To study the change and level of symptoms in other schools during the same period, a group with no exposure to the shooting was used as a control group (n=22). The assessment included Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Checklist Specific (PCL-S) and a social and professional support questionnaire. In addition questions about timing of support and experiences of psychological debriefing were asked. Results and conclusions. Most participants in the study group experienced some symptoms of PTSD at both 4 and 11 months. In both measures three participants from the study group fulfilled the diagnostic criteria for PTSD. The study group and control group differed significantly in overall symptom levels. The study group had more PTSD symptoms in the first measure but in the follow-up the study group’s PTSD symptoms decreased and the control group’s increased. There was a significant change in the study groups PTSD symptom level for those who started treatment right after the traumatic event. The results from this study showed that an exposure to school shooting has long-term effects on school personnel. The findings suggest that it is crucial to plan a comprehensive and long-term treatment for school personnel in the aftermath of school shooting.

Implications of co-twin dependence for twins' social interactions, mental health and alcohol use : A follow-up study of Finnish twins from adolescence to early adulthood

Objective: The aim of the present study was to examine co-twin dependence and its impact on twins' social contacts, leisure-time activities and psycho-emotional well-being. The role of co-twin dependence was also examined as a moderator of genetic and environmental influences on alcohol use in adolescence and in early adulthood. Methods: The present report is based on the Finnish Twin Cohort Study (FinnTwin16), a population-based study of five consecutive birth cohorts of Finnish twins born in the years 1975-1979. Baseline assessments were collected through mailed questionnaires, within two months of the twins' sixteenth birthday yielding replies from 5563 twin individuals. All respondent twins were sent follow-up questionnaires at ages of 17, 18½, and in early adulthood, when twins were 22-27 years old. Measures: The questionnaires included a survey of health habits and attitudes, a symptom checklist and questions about twins' relationships with parents, peers and co-twin. Measures used were twins' self-reports of their own dependence and their co-twin's dependence at age 16, reports of twins' leisure-time activities and social contacts, alcohol use, psychological distress and somatic symptoms both in adolescence and in early adulthood. Results: In the present study 25.6% of twins reported dependence on their co-twin. There were gender and zygosity differences in dependence, females and MZ twins were more likely to report dependence than males and DZ twins. Co-twin dependence can be viewed on one hand as an individual characteristic, but on the other hand as a pattern of dyadic interaction that is mutually regulated and reciprocal. Most of the twins (80.7%) were either concordantly co-twin dependent or concordantly co-twin independent. The associations of co-twin dependence with twins' social interactions and psycho-emotional characteristics were relatively consistent both in adolescence and in early adulthood. Dependence was related to higher contact frequency and a higher proportion of shared leisure-time activities between twin siblings at the baseline and the follow-up. Additionally co-twin dependence was associated with elevated levels of psycho-emotional distress and somatic complaints, especially in adolescence. In the framework of gene-environment interaction, these results suggest that the genetic contribution to individual differences in drinking patterns is dependent on the nature of the pair-wise relationship of twin siblings. Conclusions: The results of this study indicate that co-twin dependence is a genuine feature of the co-twin relationship and shows the importance of studying the impact of various features of co-twin relationships on individual twins' social and psycho-emotional life and well-being. Our study also offers evidence that differences in inter-personal relationships contribute to the effects of genetic propensities.