There is a high incidence of law enforcement officers that suffer from mental health conditions such as, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, and depression, however, specific interventions for law enforcement officers are rare. The purpose of this systematic review is to summarize current literature that investigates non-pharmacological mental health interventions for law enforcement officers. The review was conducted following the guidelines of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses. A quality appraisal of the included studies was conducted following the Joanna Briggs Institute Systematic Reviews Tool (sum score range from 0 to 9). Eighteen studies met the eligibility criteria with a total of 6,478 officers (mean age: 31.44 years old; female officers: 10%~75% across studies). Most of the studies were a randomized controlled trial (9 studies) or a quasi-experimental design (9 studies). The mean score of the quality assessment was 7.11(± 1.97, range = 5 to 9). Our findings show that Mindfulness-Based Interventions (10 studies), Cognitive Behavior Therapy (5 studies), Integrated Lifestyle Medicine Program (1 study), yoga exercise (1 study), Movement Microbreak (1 study), significantly improved mental illness symptoms (e.g., anxiety, depression, and PTSD), and stress biomarkers (e.g., salivary cortisol and heart rate). Policy makers and law enforcement departments should consider implementing mental health interventions to improve the overall health of law enforcement officers. Such an intervention will equip officers to be educated regarding their mental health, thus fostering a culture of wellness within law enforcement, and ultimately preventing mental illness in this population.
Hannah Delgado (Sun,) studied this question.