Earthquake impact in a remote South Asian population: Psychosocial factors and posttraumatic symptoms

Ahmad, Samoon; Feder, Adriana; Lee, Elisa J.; Wang, Yanping; Southwick, Steven M.; Schlackman, Erica; Buchholz, Katherine R.; Alonso, Angelique; Charney, Dennis S.

doi:10.1002/jts.20535

Cited by 71 publications

(58 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…Our data do not confirm that women are more vulnerable to ASD, as was reported in a study by Christodoulou et al [9], despite the fact that women subsequently develop PTSD more often than men do [2,3,5,6,11,16,17,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32]. …”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 95%

“…Many factors have been identified as having an impact on the mental health of populations affected by disasters and contributing to the severity of PTSD: female gender [2,3,5,6,11,16,17,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32], older [3,6,28,32,33,34] or younger [8] age at trauma, lower education [1,2,6,22,25,26,28,31,35], previous psychiatric illness [2,3,36], fear of death at the time of the earthquake [3,24,25,29,37,38,39], degree of exposure to earthquake [1,11,21,32,35,40], closer proximity to the epicentre [31], loss of close ones [2,24,26,40,41], property or resource loss [1,4,11,16,23,28,29,42], having been trapped/injured under rubble and participation in rescue work [3,29,37,43], greater number of traumatic experiences [5], relocation after a disaster [44,45], and less social support [1,4,11,35,46]. …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Acute Stress Reactions and Associated Factors in the Help-Seekers after the L’Aquila Earthquake

et al. 2012

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Background: The assessment of acute stress reactions and psychiatric symptomatology shortly after the occurrence of a traumatic catastrophic event, like an earthquake, is essential for implementing relief activities and for the identification of the long-term aftermath. The aim of our study was to assess the psychological distress and the occurrence of acute stress disorder (ASD) among individuals seeking help at the General Hospital Psychiatric Unit at San Salvatore Hospital following the earthquake at L’Aquila. Factors (sociodemographic, coping strategies, event-related and postevent variables) associated with the acute stress reactions were also assessed. Methods: For the first 4 weeks following the earthquake, 122 help-seekers were assessed with a checklist of traumatic-event-related variables. Measurement instruments included the Stanford Acute Stress Reaction Questionnaire (SASRQ) for the detection of ASD according to DSM-IV criteria, the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) for assessing psychological distress, and the Brief Cope questionnaire for assessing coping strategies. Results: Despite the high level of psychological distress (GHQ-12 ≥20, cut-off value) found in 65.6% of the subjects, only 6 subjects (4.9%) could be considered affected by ‘full’ ASD, whereas 48 subjects (39.3%) could be considered affected by ‘partial’ ASD, which is defined as showing at least one symptom on each DSM-IV criterion as evidenced by scoring higher than 3 on each SASRQ scale. The strongest predictor of traumatic stress reactions among all the predictor variables included in our study was having been trapped/injured under rubble during the earthquake, and among earthquake stressors (explaining 20% of variance in our model), a weaker predictor was the loss of personal privacy because of home displacement. In our model, more variance (39%) was explained when individual psychopathological variables and coping styles were also included as predictors. Showing coping strategies as exhibiting ‘behavioural disengagement’ or ‘requesting emotional support from others’ were found to increase the likelihood of a positive estimate of being an ‘ASD case’, while the adoption of an ‘acceptance’ coping style seemed to reduce the likelihood of the positive estimate of being an ‘ASD case’. Conclusions: This study underlines the importance of identifying ASD subsyndromal cases and taking appropriate intervention/prevention measures that focus on giving psychological support to individuals trapped/injured under rubble, showing a low acceptance of reality. A relevant underestimated source of distress was the dislocation in large accommodation settings (such as large tent camps) in which individuals lack privacy.

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 95%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Acute Stress Reactions and Associated Factors in the Help-Seekers after the L’Aquila Earthquake

et al. 2012

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“…Contrary to that, occurrence of posttraumatic stress disorder was associated with low resilience. A similar finding is in Ahmand et al (2010), which points out that earthquake survivors with higher resilience scores had less posttraumatic symptom levels. Peres et al (2011) investigated police officers with traumatic memories by fMRI scan.…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 73%

Could Resilience Predict the Outcome of Psychiatric Rehabilitation Patients?

Engmann¹

2013

OJD

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Background: Individual resistance to burdens such as stress, adversity, and even disasters is called "resilience". Whereas most studies of resilience investigate post-traumatic stress disorder, fewer studies treat anxiety and depressiveness in mentally healthy populations. The present pilot study investigates whether resilience lessens the severity of depressive symptoms. Aim was to figure out whether further research is needed on the relation of resilience both to depression and to rehabilitation from it in regard to fitness for work. Design/Setting/Population: A retrospective, non-blind, non-randomized analysis of charts of 503 stationary inpatient-patients was performed. Patients without age limits who suffered from diseases of the depressive spectrum (F32, F33) and also adjustment disorder (F43.2), dysthymia (F34.1), and neurasthenia (F48) according to ICD 10 were included. BDI and resilience scale, state of fitness or unfitness for work, were analysed with correlation analysis and descriptive statistics by the SPSS program. Results: Analysis revealed that resilience and depressive symptoms are inversely related. The higher the resilience the lower the BDI score, indicating a lower burden of depressive symptoms. Resilience also seems to influence important outcome factors of rehabilitation such as reintegration in work and remission of depressive symptoms. Patients who either were fit for work at the beginning of rehabilitation or were dismissed as fit for work had higher resilience scores than those who were unfit for work. Conclusion: This pilot study encourages further investigation of the relation of resilience not only to depressive disorders, but also to rehabilitation and social reintegration after depression.

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“…Increases in resilience measured with the CD-RISC are strongly associated with clinical improvements in psychiatric patients and reflect global improvements in general functioning [23]. The CD-RISC has been used in various cross-cultural studies with population groups from China [40], Korea [41], Turkey [42], Iran [43], Pakistan [44], Russia [45], and South Africa [46]. It has also been used in adolescents from culturally diverse backgrounds [40,45,46].…”

Section: 2mentioning

confidence: 99%

Resilience and Its Association with Depression, Emotional and Behavioural Problems, and Mental Health Service Utilisation among Refugee Adolescents Living in South Australia

Ziaian

Anstiss

Antoniou

et al. 2012

International Journal of Population Research

103

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Background. Despite the frequency of traumatic or stressful events experienced by refugee children and adolescents prior to migration and following resettlement, the majority do not experience mental health problems emphasising the critical nature of resilience. While a host of factors deemed to be protective of mental health in young refugees have been identified, there has been little research exploring the role of resilience as a distinct psychological construct. This study aimed to explore the nature of psychological resilience in refugee adolescents and the relationship between resilience and depression, other emotional and behavioural problems, and mental health service uptake. Method. One hundred and seventy multiethnic refugee adolescents aged 13–17 from South Australia were administered a survey comprising the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC), Children’s Depression Inventory (CDI), and Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Results. Females tended to have higher resilience, as did those adolescents who had been living in Australia longer. Adolescents suffering from depressive symptoms or other emotional or behavioural problems had lower resilience. There was little evidence of an association between resilience scores and exposure to trauma or service utilisation. Discussion. Fostering resilience may be critical to efforts to prevent or reduce mental health problems in refugee adolescents.

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Earthquake impact in a remote South Asian population: Psychosocial factors and posttraumatic symptoms

Cited by 71 publications

References 17 publications

Acute Stress Reactions and Associated Factors in the Help-Seekers after the L’Aquila Earthquake

Acute Stress Reactions and Associated Factors in the Help-Seekers after the L’Aquila Earthquake

Could Resilience Predict the Outcome of Psychiatric Rehabilitation Patients?

Resilience and Its Association with Depression, Emotional and Behavioural Problems, and Mental Health Service Utilisation among Refugee Adolescents Living in South Australia

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