The economic burden of posttraumatic stress disorder among Canadian lawyers: an exploratory study

ABSTRACT

Witnessing traumatic material is common for lawyers and can trigger symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This exploratory study aimed to assess the economic burden associated with probable PTSD (determined by a cut-off score on the PCL-5), among a convenience sample of Canadian lawyers. A group of 159 lawyers completed a longitudinal online survey. Participants were also classified as having incident, persistent, remitted, or no probable PTSD. Societal costs included direct, indirect, and patient costs. Past year health services use, physician fees, prescription medications, loss of productivity at work, medical leave, time lost due to medical visits, and fees paid to mental health and other professionals not covered by the universal health care plan in Canada were considered. Lawyers with probable PTSD incurred significantly higher costs than those without PTSD for loss of productivity at work ($62,105 vs $15,847) and, specifically among lawyers in private practice, for billable hours lost ($39,375 vs $7,127). The societal costs associated with probable PTSD were mainly driven by those related to loss of productivity due to absenteeism and presenteeism. How those results mirror the values and behaviors that are promoted in the field of law is discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
• lawyer
• health economics
• healthcare costs
• loss of productivity

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Due to the sensitive nature of the collected data and because participants were not made aware beforehand that the study data would be shared online as part of a publication, the data is not accessible online. Ethically, sharing the collected data would infringe on the participants’ informed consent to participate. Given mental health stigmas present in the legal environment, it is probable that many lawyers would have refrained from participating in this study had they known the data would have been made public online (Krill et al., 2016; Perlin, 2007; Weir et al., 2020). We invite researchers to contact the corresponding author for access.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and by the Fonds de Recherche Société et Culture Québec through fellowships obtained by Marie-Jeanne Leonard.