Risk Factors for Duty-Related Posttraumatic Stress Disorder among Police Officers in the Mt. Ontake Eruption Disaster-Support Task Force
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
It is a very interesting study. There are various types of natural disasters in Japan, and the volcanic eruption and the PTSD risk factors of police officers are very interesting study.
PDS-5 was made, but it couldn't be used at the time of research in 2015.
3.1
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None of the participants had severe PTSD symptoms.
I think that there is a considerable difference in the dangers of their work, such as dealing with dead bodies and dealing with anger of bereaved family members, as well as work that is dangerous for themselves and relatively safe desk work.
The questionnaire asks questions mixed with search and rescue or transportation or autopsy.
Should this be divided?
Is work intensity, risk, etc. evaluated?
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The PDS score was low in 4.1.
Is there any reasons?
I think it's not just Japan, but police officers need to be brave.
Does the test result have an effect on work evaluations?
Therefore, isn't the painful feeling expressed in the test?
Isn't this the limit of the questionnaire?
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It was reported that neither the Japanese disaster medical team, police officers, or firefighters had a high risk of PTSD. Is this a feature in Japan?
Could high-level training be strong against PTSD?
Is there any background or any reason why the participants can't write mental distress in the questionnaire?
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In a study of symptoms with a PDS score of 1 or higher, women are reported to be at risk for PTSD, but is the OR too high?
Was the job description, whether or not the patient had the original mental illness, whether the subject had a history of traumatic experience, and whether the job description was extremely heavy?
Did any of these subjects ever leave?
Isn't the follow-up after just this survey?
4. In discussions, there are many comparisons with firefighter data, but is it difficult to compare with data from police officers around the world?
In Japan, police are involved in volcanic disasters, but in other countries, is the military dispatched and responding? Is it difficult to compare with soldiers?
Working longer than 7 days was found to be more risky.
Does exploration and rescue or transport or autopsy not require separate analysis?
The OR was higher for stress relief methods such as drinking and smoking. Are these people likely to be addicted to alcohol?
Alcohol dependence on depression may be a possible commodity, but is there any effect?
Those who search, transport, or autopsy have a higher CD-RISK, and those who are mentally healthy are said to be healthy even under high stress.
From this result, it seems that a healthy person is healthy. Do you think that Japanese police officers have many mentally healthy people working?
Does the originally high work stress mean that there is less support from their boss and colleagues during normal time without disaster?　Does that just have an impact in the event of a disaster?
Also, the gender of women was at high risk. Is this group of women extremely young and inexperienced?
If so, this conclusion would be too much.
It is possible that people with much experience, such as managers, have high coping skills, but if they are just young and have little experience, you may reconsider your considerations.
Regarding the continuous employment for more than 7 days, did you mean that they did not take any stress reduction measures, such as adjusting the adjust the schedule and taking holidays?
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It is concluded that it leads to prevention and early detection of PTSD, but how does it actually lead to prevention and early detection? It may be good for men to respond to disasters, educate them to reduce drinking, and reduce the stress of daily work, but it is often difficult. What could you actually propose from this data for that purpose?
Author Response
Thank you very much for the useful comments regarding our manuscript.
We have attempted to address the Reviewers’ comments.
Please see the attachment.
And We also revised Figure1, Table1, Table2.
Figure1 was fixed up of the graphic.
The tables were changed in MS Word table format.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 2 Report
This is a useful, straightforward study, with a sound methodology. The design and the results are aptly described. The relatively low levels of PTSD in the police personnel engaged in this type of disaster work is interesting, but explicable in terms of selection and prior training. This idea is supported by the relatively high level of measured Resilience, which was not significantly linked to the relatively mild PTSD profiles of subjects. The authors might propose a follow-up of these personnel in order to establish the hypothesis that enduring signs of PTSD were mild, and transitory in nature.
Author Response
Thank you very much for the comments regarding our manuscript.
Please see the attachment.
And We also revised Figure1, Table1, Table2.
Figure1 was fixed up of the graphic.
The tables were changed in MS Word table format.
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
