Work-related trauma, alienation, and posttraumatic and depressive symptoms in medical examiner employees.

Objective: First-responder employees, including firefighters, police, and medical examiners, are at risk for the development of depression and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a result of exposure to workplace trauma. However, pathways linking workplace trauma exposure to mental health symptoms are not well understood. In the context of social-cognitive models of depression/PTSD, we examined the role of negative cognitions as mediators of the cross-sectional and longitudinal relationship of workplace trauma exposure to symptoms of depression/PTSD in medical examiner (ME) employees.