Workplace trauma | Global Collaboration

Workplace Trauma

Topic leaders: Jeanet Karchoud & Roosmarijn Schelvis

Department of Public and Occupational Health, AmsterdamUMC, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Workplace trauma is common in high-risk occupational groups such as military personnel, police officers, firefighters, and health workers. This can lead to long-term (mental health) consequences in individuals, organizations and society. The Workplace group aims to bring together researchers who study PTSD and other trauma related mental health outcomes in these professions. Projects may, for example, focus on symptomatology and prevalence, risk and protective factors, screening and interventions, or cross-national comparative studies. Research can address these issues from different angles, considering individuals, teams/organizations, or societal contexts. See some example references below (1-9).

Please contact Jeanet Karchoud or Roosmarijn Schelvis if you would like to initiate new projects.

Projects

Cross-national risk and protective factors in high-risk occupations

Project leaders

Jeanet Karchoud & Roosmarijn Schelvis

Department of Public and Occupational Health, Amsterdam UMC, Amsterdam, the Netherlands

This is a cross-national research project with data collected during the interactive workshop at the GCTS conference 2026 (22-24 April, Seoul, South Korea).

You are welcome to join Workshop 2 Workplace Trauma – Interactive session (22 April) at the GCTS conference on cross-national comparisons of risk and protective factors related to work-related trauma in high-risk occupational groups. The workshop will bring together researchers from different countries to exchange perspectives on workplace trauma in high-risk occupations.

Through structured interactive exercises, participants will identify and discuss risk and protective factors at the organizational and societal levels, and reflect on how these factors may differ across countries and occupational contexts. The session will also serve as a starting point for building international collaborations within the new GCTS Workplace Trauma theme group.

Status

Starting up

Collaborate

Collaborators are welcome (CAW)! . Please contact Jeanet Karchoud, if you are interested to join this project.

Shared predictors for PTSD and depression in Danish soldiers

Project leader

Jeanet Karchoud

Department of Public and Occupational Health, Amsterdam UMC, Amsterdam, the Netherlands

Project group

Jeanet Karchoud, Amsterdam UMC, Amsterdam, the Netherlands

Roosmarijn Schelvis, Amsterdam UMC, Amsterdam, the Netherlands

Lars Nissen, The Danish Veterans Centre, Ringsted, Denmark

Bjarke Schmidt, The Danish Veterans Centre, Ringsted, Denmark

Ole Melkevik, The Danish Veterans Centre, Ringsted, Denmark

Background

Shared predictors of prognostic machine learning models for PTSD and depression symptoms 2.5 years following military deployment: a prospective longitudinal cohort in Danish soldiers before, during and after deployment

Military deployment is associated with an increased risk of long-term adverse mental health outcomes, including symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression. These conditions frequently co-occur in military populations and share overlapping symptom profiles, suggesting partly shared underlying mechanisms. While prognostic machine learning models have been increasingly used to identify risk and protective factors for PTSD and depression separately, it remains unclear to what extent these models rely on shared versus disorder-specific predictors across different deployment phases.

Aims & Methods
This study aimed to identify and compare shared and distinct predictors of PTSD and depression symptoms 2.5 years after military deployment, using prognostic machine learning models applied to a large set of pre-, peri-, and post-deployment variables in Danish soldiers.

Status

Ongoing

Karchoud, J. F., Schelvis, R., Nissen, L. R., Schmidt, B. W., & Melkevik, O. (manuscript in preparation). Shared predictors of prognostic machine learning models for PTSD and depression symptoms 2.5 years following military deployment: A prospective longitudinal cohort in Danish soldiers before, during and after deployment.

The GCTS Workplace Trauma Network

Join the Workplace Trauma network

We are currently expanding our network. If you are interested in joining this group, we kindly invite you to contact Jeanet Karchoud, and to register as a GCTS member via the website Project member registration form. When registering, please indicate that you wish to participate under the theme Workplace Trauma. Registration is free and includes the GCTS newsletter (2–4 times per year); Information about ongoing projects; Opportunities to participate in future international collaborations and workshops.

Current network members

Jeanet Karchoud, Amsterdam UMC, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Roosmarijn Schelvis, Amsterdam UMC, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Anne Bakker, OLVG Hospital, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Pleuni Corton, ARQ, Diemen, the Netherlands
Charlotte Hilberdink, NYU Langone, New York, USA
Chris Hoeboer, Amsterdam UMC, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
John Ismael, University of Santo Tomas, General Trias, Philippines
Bert Lenaert, Maastricht University, Maastricht, the Netherlands
Miriam Lommen, University of Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands
Max Loomes, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
Miranda Olff, Amsterdam UMC, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Jesper Pihl-Thingvad, Odense University Hospital, Odense, Denmark
Maria Louison Vang, University of Southern Denmark / Odense University Hospital, Odense, Denmark
Remco van Zijderveld, MGZZ, Utrecht, the Netherlands

About the topic leaders

Jeanet Karchoud conducted her doctoral research on the long-term impact of psychotrauma and PTSD risk screening at the Psychiatry department of Amsterdam UMC, under supervision of Miranda Olff. Jeanet expertise includes longitudinal cohort studies and machine learning. She is now working at the Public and Occupational Health department of Amsterdam UMC together with Roosmarijn Schelvis. Roosmarijn Schelvis is founder and coordinator of the Mental Health and Work lab of Amsterdam UMC. Roosmarijn has studied workplace stressors in diverse work contexts and she holds expertise on designing, implementing and evaluating complex interventions. Together they combined their research expertise and started the GCTS Workplace Trauma topic.

Jeanet Karchoud Roosmarijn Schelvis

Literature

Lommen, M. J., Näther, M., & Keller, A. C. (2025). Predictors of differential PTSD and depression symptom trajectories in firefighters: a growth mixture analysis. European journal of psychotraumatology, 16(1), 2535898.
Schultebraucks, K., Mueller, V., Birnbaum, S., Hilberdink, C., Zhao, Y., Chang, J., ... & Gershov, S. (2025). Large Language Models for Accurate Mental Health Screening: Identifying Clinical Phenotypes in ED Healthcare Workers.
Damsgaard, K., Melander-Nyboe, P., Pihl-Thingvad, J., Steinmetz, J., & Gehrt, T. B. (2025). Common mental health symptoms in personnel working in helicopter emergency medical services: A systematic review. Air medical journal.
Melander, P., Vang, M. L., Lindekilde, N., Andersen, L. P. S., Elklit, A., & Pihl-Thingvad, J. (2024). Social support utilization’s effect on post-traumatic stress symptoms: a Danish cross-sectional study of 383 ambulance personnel. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 15, 1425254.
Porter, C., & Lommen, M. J. (2023). Primary prevention of trauma-related disorders in high-risk professionals: A systematic review. Mental Health & Prevention, 29, 200257.
van Sleeuwen, C., van Zuiden, M., Koch, S. B., Frijling, J. L., Veltman, D. J., Olff, M., & Nawijn, L. (2023). How does it feel? An exploration of neurobiological and clinical correlates of alexithymia in trauma-exposed police-officers with and without PTSD. European journal of psychotraumatology, 14(2), 2281187.
Wagelaar, E. M., Hogeveen, L. S., Jonkman, N. H., & Bakker, A. (2025). Healthcare employees’ perspectives on organizational communication about preventive mental health interventions: A focus group study. Plos one, 20(10), e0334716.
van Buschbach, S., van der Meer, C. A., Dijkman, L., Olff, M., & Bakker, A. (2020). Web-based peer support education program for health care professionals. The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety, 46(4), 227-231.
Karchoud, J. F., Schelvis, R., Nissen, L. R., Schmidt, B. W., & Melkevik, O. (manuscript in preparation). Shared predictors of prognostic machine learning models for PTSD and depression symptoms 2.5 years following military deployment: a prospective longitudinal cohort in Danish soldiers before, during and after deployment.