Evidence map›Paper›PMID 34603635›Full record

ArticleEuropean journal of psychotraumatology2021

Moral injury in civilians: associations with trauma exposure, PTSD, and suicide behavior.

Negar Fani, Joseph M Currier, Matthew D Turner, Alfonsina Guelfo, Madeleine Kloess, Jahnvi Jain, Yara Mekawi, Eva Kuzyk, Rebecca Hinrichs, Bekh Bradley and 4 more

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in European journal of psychotraumatology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 28 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
28citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
4.7field-weighted citation impact, top 5% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

28 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 52 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Article
  3. Article
  4. Resting-State Neural Signatures of Moral Injury: Associations With Rumination.Biological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging · 2026
    Article
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  9. Moral Injury and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in War: The Effect of Marital Status and Previous Genocidal Trauma.International journal of psychology : Journal international de psychologie · 2026
    Article
  10. Article
  11. Article
  12. Article
  13. Article
  14. A call to action: Ameliorating moral distress among veterinarians.The Canadian veterinary journal = La revue veterinaire canadienne · 2025
    Review
  15. War trauma impacts in Ukrainian combat and civilian populations: Moral injury and associated mental health symptoms.Military psychology : the official journal of the Division of Military Psychology, American Psychological Association · 2024
    Article
  16. Article
  17. Article
  18. Civilian Moral Injury and Amygdala Functional Connectivity During Attention to Threat.Biological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging · 2024
    Article
  19. Article
  20. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

14 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.

Negar FaniDepartment of Psychiatry, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-7720-252X
Joseph M CurrierDepartment of Psychology, University of South Alabama, Mobile, AL, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-8843-2996
Matthew D TurnerDepartment of Psychology, Georgia State University, Atlanta, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-4417-1042
Alfonsina GuelfoDepartment of Psychiatry, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-7377-722X
Madeleine KloessDepartment of Psychiatry, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA.
Jahnvi JainDepartment of Psychiatry, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-4936-9023
Yara MekawiDepartment of Psychiatry, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-9181-2324
Eva KuzykDepartment of Psychiatry, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-8806-7773
Rebecca HinrichsDepartment of Psychiatry, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA.ORCID 0000-0001-8882-2778
Bekh BradleyDepartment of Psychiatry, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA.ORCID 0000-0003-1838-0702
Abigail PowersDepartment of Psychiatry, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA.ORCID 0000-0003-3197-7415
Jennifer S StevensDepartment of Psychiatry, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA.ORCID 0000-0003-4674-0314
Vasiliki MichopoulosDepartment of Psychiatry, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA.ORCID 0000-0003-2531-923X
Jessica A TurnerDepartment of Psychology, Georgia State University, Atlanta, USA.ORCID 0000-0003-0076-8434
Emory University · USGeorgia State University · USUniversity of South Alabama · US

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Background: Moral injury (MI) describes emotional, spiritual, and social suffering that can arise following psychological trauma. Prior research in military pop ulations indicates the relevance of MI to adverse psychological outcomes, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and suicidal behaviours, and shows evidence for MI as a unique construct. Minimal studies of MI have been implemented in civilians, usually restricted to small samples with a specific set of traumatic experiences, despite the conceptual relevance of MI to non-military trauma reactions more broadly (e.g. feelings of betrayal towards a perpetrator of sexual abuse). Objective: To address this problem, we assessed MI in trauma-exposed civilians to examine ways in which this construct was related to and distinct from trauma and traumatic stress-related problems, including PTSD and depression. Method: We adapted an existing MI scale, Moral Injury Events Scale (MIES) and administered this measure to 81 men and women along with measures of trauma exposure, PTSD and depression, and also asked participants about past suicide attempts. Results: We observed that both greater exposure and distress related to potentially morally injurious events were associated with higher trauma exposure, particularly childhood maltreatment, as well as post-traumatic and depressive psychopathology. However, even after accounting for current PTSD and depression symptoms, MI exposure (F = 6.05, Conclusions: These pilot data reveal the ways in which MI is associated with trauma exposure, PTSD and depression and highlight the salience of MI in civilians. Similarly, these data demonstrate the unique relevance of MI to suicide behaviours, independent of post-traumatic psychopathology, indicating that this construct may be an understudied contributor to suicide risk in civilians.

Indexed as

Suicidal IdeationAdultAnxietyChildChild AbuseFemaleHumansInterviews as TopicMaleStress Disorders, Post-TraumaticSurveys and QuestionnairesWounds and Injuriescentro de la ciudadcivilesciviliansDaño moralinner-cityMoral injurypost-traumatic stress disordersuicidesuicidioTrastorno de estrés postraumáticotrauma创伤创伤后应激障碍市中心平民自杀道德伤害

Identifiers

PMID34603635
PMCPMC8480773
OpenAlexW3204068295

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY-NC
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.