Master's Examination Committee:

Among EMS professionals, occupational exposures in mental illness literature are not well-represented. Currently, no literature exists examining the prevalence of mental illness in a large national cohort of EMS professionals. As such, the purpose of this study is to address the lack of scientific knowledge and evidence in the field of mental illness among EMS professionals. The objectives of this master’s thesis are three fold. The first objective is to estimate the prevalence and severity of depression, anxiety, and stress among a cohort of nationally certified EMS professionals. Because other healthcare professions may have similar occupational exposures related to mental illness, the second objective of this study is a comparison of nationally certified EMS professionals ’ depression, anxiety, and stress prevalence to other healthcare professions. The third objective of this master’s thesis is the determination of differences between cases and controls (defined by the 21-question Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS-21)) from the same cohort with respect to clinical depression, anxiety, stress, and demographic and work-life characteristics