Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Klinik Psikiyatri Dergisi, cilt.28, sa.4, ss.352-363, 2025 (ESCI, Scopus, TRDizin)
Secondary traumatic stress (STS) is an increasingly recognized mental health concern among professionals working with trauma survivors. Although STS shares symptomatic overlap with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), its etiology is rooted not in direct trauma exposure but in empathic engagement with traumatized individuals in the course of professional responsibilities. This crucial conceptual distinction is often neglected in both the mental health literature and clinical settings. This narrative review explores the theoretical underpinnings, diagnostic challenges, and psychosocial consequences of STS, with a particular focus on professionals operating in disaster zones. Drawing on models such as compassion fatigue, vicarious traumatization, and ecological frameworks, the review conceptualizes STS as an outcome of the dynamic interaction between individual vulnerability, professional exposure, and contextual stressors. Risk factors are discussed across three levels: individual (e.g., young age, female gender, personal trauma history), occupational (e.g., lack of supervision, limited field experience), and event-based (e.g., exposure to emotionally intense cases, witnessing grief and loss). Despite the growing empirical interest in STS, much of the existing literature is based on cross-sectional designs and lacks culturally adapted assessment tools with robust psychometric properties. Furthermore, STS is frequently treated solely as a clinical condition, while its structural and ethical implications for professional sustainability and care quality remain underexamined. This review highlights the necessity of addressing STS as a systemic occupational risk that requires early recognition, theoretical clarity, culturally sensitive screening instruments, and institutional-level interventions such as trauma-informed supervision and workload support. A comprehensive understanding of STS, informed by multidimensional models and longitudinal data, is critical to safeguarding the mental well-being of professionals exposed to secondary trauma.