Perceived social support and longitudinal trajectories of depression and anxiety in World Trade Center responders

Purpose While severely distressing events are known to affect mental health adversely, some survivors develop only short-lived or no psychiatric symptoms in the aftermath of a disaster. In the WTC Health Program General Responder Cohort (WTCHP GRC) we examined whether social support was protective against the development of depression or anxiety symptoms after the 9/11 WTC attacks and explored in a subsample whether trait resilience moderated this relationship. Methods We analyzed data from 14,033 traditional and 13,478 non-traditional responders who attended at least three periodic health monitoring visits between 2002 and 2019. Linear mixed-effects models were used to examine depression (Patient Health Questionnaire-9; PHQ-9) and anxiety (Generalized Anxiety Disorder screener; GAD-7) scores. In a subsample of 812 participants, we also assessed if the association between social support and symptoms was moderated by an individual’s trait resilience level (Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, CD-RISC). Results For both traditional and non-traditional responders, perceived social support around 9/11 was associated with lower levels of depressive (β = − 0.24, S.E. = 0.017, z = − 14.29, p < 0.001) and anxiety symptoms (β = − 0.17, S. E. = 0.016, z = − 10.48, p < 0.001). Trait resilience scores were higher in responders with at least one source of social support during the aftermath of 9/11 compared to those without (mean 71.56, SD 21.58 vs mean 76.64, SD 17.06; β = 5.08, S.E. = 0.36, p < 0.001). Trait resilience moderated the association between social support and depressive ( p < 0.001) and anxiety trajectories ( p < 0.001) for traditional responders. Conclusion Our findings suggest that perceived social support around a severely distressing event may have long-term protective effects on symptoms of depression and anxiety.