Evidence map›Paper›PMID 38972012›Full record

SynthesisJournal of psychiatric and mental health nursing2025

Personal trauma history and secondary traumatic stress in mental health professionals: A systematic review.

Anita Henderson, Tom Jewell, Xia Huang, Alan Simpson

Abstract readSystematic Review
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Synthesis in Journal of psychiatric and mental health nursing, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
16citing papers in PubMed, 2 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
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

16 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.

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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

4 authors.

Anita HendersonFlorence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery & Palliative Care, King's College London, London, UK.ORCID https://orcid.org/0009-0003-2507-4882
Tom JewellFlorence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery and Palliative Care, King's College London, David Goldberg Building, London, UK.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4084-7786
Xia HuangFlorence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery and Palliative Care, King's College London, David Goldberg Building, London, UK.
Alan SimpsonCare in Long Term Conditions Research Division, Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing Midwifery & Palliative Care, King's College London, London, UK.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3286-9846

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

introductionCaring for those who have been traumatized can place mental health professionals at risk of secondary traumatic stress, particularly in those with their own experience of personal trauma.

aimTo identify the prevalence of personal trauma history and secondary traumatic stress in mental health professionals and whether there is an association between these two variables in mental health professionals.

methodWe preregistered the review with PROSPERO (CRD42022322939) and followed PRISMA guidelines. Medline, Embase, PsycINFO, Web of Science and CINHAL were searched up until 17th August 2023. Articles were included if they assessed both personal trauma history and secondary traumatic stress in mental health professionals. Data on the prevalence and association between these variables were extracted. Quality assessment of included studies was conducted using an adapted form of the Newcastle-Ottawa scale.

resultsA total of 23 studies were included. Prevalence of personal trauma history ranged from 19%-81%, secondary traumatic stress ranged from 19% to 70%. Eighteen studies reported on the association between personal trauma history and secondary traumatic stress, with 14 out of 18 studies finding a statistically significant positive relationship between these variables. The majority of studies were of fair methodological quality. DISCUSSION: Mental health professionals with a personal history of trauma are at heightened risk of suffering from secondary traumatic stress. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: Targeted support should be provided to professionals to prevent and/or address secondary traumatic stress in the workforce.

Indexed as

Health PersonnelHumansPsychological Traumacompassion fatiguemental health professionalpersonal trauma historysecondary traumatic stressvicarious trauma

Identifiers

PMID38972012
PMCPMC11704991

What OpenQuestion holds

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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.