Violence in the work: the possible relationships between assaults and PTSD in drivers and conductors from a public transport company

Abstract

The study's main objective was to investigate the possible existing causal connection among urban violence (specifically the assaults) present on the context of work of drivers and conductors from a public transport company of the metropolitan area of Belo Horizonte City (RMBH) and the psychological sickness of the workers. The field research based on the qualitative method, when we carried out semi-structured interviews with 16 workers, victims of assaults on the work context, and with participant observation next to bus lines considered more vulnerable to assaults in a city of the RMBH. The results show up that the drivers, participant of the study, present isolated symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), it being that some can become vulnerable to the developing of diagnosis of this disorder, it if they continue exposed to assaults, principally in situation of re-incidence. In all of the participants, we identified illustrative speeches in at least one of the symptoms of each criterion diagnosis. The identified symptoms were: re-experience of the assault in thoughts, images and dreams; psychological suffering resulting from the contact with external signs, which symbolize or bring the recollection of some aspect of the trauma; avoidance of people who remember the trauma; insomnia and irritability. Results indicate a possible causal connection among the situation of the assault suffered during the working day and the developing of PTSD in the driver and conductor.