Structure and severity of pathological anxiety response in the representatives of the command staff of the merchant and passenger navy

Abstract

During 2016–2019, 180 navy commanders of Ukraine were surveyed: 110 members of the merchant navy command staff and 70 members of command staff of the passenger navy. All surveyed were male, citizens of Ukraine. Clinical-psychopathological and psychodiagnostic methods were used for studying the specific manifestations of anxiety response of the command staff of the merchant and passenger navy, to determine the need to create system-specific measures for the protection of their mental health. It is shown that more than half of the representatives of the command staff of the merchant (69,1 %) and passenger (57,1 %) navy have signs of mental maladaptation, which in most cases do not reach clinically outlined severity. A significant number of command personnel of both the merchant and passenger navy have manifestations of pathological alarming responses and alarming symptoms, predominantly of moderate intensity. In the commanders of the merchant navy more intense manifestations of alarming symptoms are observed, the average severity of which is approaching the upper limit of subclinical values, in representatives of the passenger navy the average severity of alarming symptoms is approaching to the upper limit of the standard indicators. A lower indicator of alarming symptoms among commanders of the passenger navy is due to a significantly larger number of persons without signs of mental maladaptation, while a significantly increased level of alarming response of merchant navy captains is due to a large number of respondents with preclinical maladaptive manifestations. The data obtained should be taken into account in the development of specific measures of psychotherapy and psychoprophylaxis for this contingent, which is the perspective of this study.