ArticleScientific reports2024
The impact of potentially morally injurious experience of betrayal on PTSD and depression following the October 7th terror attack.
Article in Scientific reports, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Evaluating the association between potentially morally injurious events (PMIEs) and types of psychological distress. A systematic review.European journal of psychotraumatology · 2026Pooled it
- Psychiatric outcomes in the first two years after the October 7 attacks: a systematic review of posttraumatic stress, anxiety, depression, and addiction-related outcomes.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Pooled it
- Childhood maltreatment and psychopathology during collective trauma: the longitudinal role of betrayal-related moral injury.European journal of psychotraumatology · 2026Article
- Predicting Fear of Terrorism Following the Indirect Exposure to October 7th Hamas Attack Against Israel Through Psychological Distance: The Mediating Role of Self-Labeling.Journal of interpersonal violence · 2026Article
- Betrayal as consequence and catalyst: Longitudinal and reciprocal relations with PTSD and depression during ongoing conflict.Journal of affective disorders · 2026Article
- Mental health and self-compassion in military couples during wartime.Psychological trauma : theory, research, practice and policy · 2026Article
- 'We're all in this together': the protective role of belongingness in the contribution of moral injury to mental health among participants in Israel's civil protest movement.European journal of psychotraumatology · 2025Article
- Beyond trauma: knowledge and training gaps among mental health professionals in the aftermath of October 7th 2023.Israel journal of health policy research · 2025Article
- Israeli mental health in the aftermath of the October 7 terrorist attack: risks, challenges, and recommendations.Israel journal of health policy research · 2025Review
- Tired of war: Changes in the sleep of the Israeli civilian population in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war.International journal of clinical and health psychology : IJCHPArticle
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4 authors.
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Abstract
With about 1200 individuals murdered, the massacre of October 7th was one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in modern history. The mental health consequences of terrorist attacks have been documented. However, little is known of the impact of the potentially morally injurious experience (PMIE) of betrayal--in which individuals feel betrayed by leaders they once trusted--on levels of psychological burden in the aftermath of such an attack. In this national prospective cohort study, we examined to what extent the PMIE of betrayal exacerbates the risk for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression in the wake of the October 7th terrorist attack. A representative sample of 710 Israeli adults (362 female, 51.1%), Jews (557, 79.9%) and Arabs (153, 20.1%), aged 18-85 (M = 41.01, SD = 13.72) completed validated self-report questionnaires assessing PTSD, depression, and PMIE-betrayal at two timepoints: T1, in August 2023 (6-7 weeks before the attack) and T2, in November 2023 (5-6 weeks after the attack). In two hierarchical logistic regressions, we found that experience of PMIE-betrayal predicted diagnoses of both PTSD (OR 1.92, 95% CI 1.26-2.92) and depression (OR 2.03, 95% CI 1.37-3.01) at T2, beyond probable PTSD/depression at T1 and demographic and trauma-related variables. Moreover, in two repeated-measure analyses predicting PTSD/depression symptoms, we found significant interactions between PTSD/depression trajectories and PMIE-betrayal, meaning that the increase of PTSD/depression symptoms was significantly higher among participants experiencing betrayal in the context of the attack. Our study highlights the impact of PMIE of betrayal on the dramatic increase in psychopathology following the October 7th terror attack on Israel's population. Clinicians treating individuals coping with PTSD and depression should attend to their patients' possible exposure to betrayal following the attack. Moreover, national leaders and policymakers should take significant steps to repair the public's betrayal experience.
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