Post- and peritraumatic stress in disaster survivors: an explorative study about the influence of individual and event characteristics across different types of disasters

Abstract

BackgroundExamination of existing research on posttraumatic adjustment after disasters suggests that survivors’ posttraumatic stress levels might be better understood by investigating the influence of the characteristics of the event experienced on how people thought and felt, during the event as well as afterwards.ObjectiveTo compare survivors’ perceived post- and peritraumatic emotional and cognitive reactions across different types of disasters. Additionally, to investigate individual and event characteristics.DesignIn a European multi-centre study, 102 survivors of different disasters terror attack, flood, fire and collapse of a building were interviewed about their responses during the event. Survivors’ perceived posttraumatic stress levels were assessed with the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R). Peritraumatic emotional stress and risk perception were rated retrospectively. Influences of individual characteristics, such as socio-demographic data, and event characteristics, such as time and exposure factors, on post- and peritraumatic outcomes were analyzed.ResultsLevels of reported post- and peritraumatic outcomes differed significantly between types of disasters. Type of disaster was a significant predictor of all three outcome variables but the factors gender, education, time since event, injuries and fatalities were only significant for certain outcomes.ConclusionResults support the hypothesis that there are differences in perceived post- and peritraumatic emotional and cognitive reactions after experiencing different types of disasters. However, it should be noted that these findings were not only explained by the type of disaster itself but also by individual and event characteristics. As the study followed an explorative approach, further research paths are discussed to better understand the relationships between variables.

Human responses to disasters: A pilot study on peritraumatic emotional and cognitive processing

“…Here, it must be noted that all scenarios described a situation of similar risk, from the stage of realization, to the stage where an evacuation was being initiated, through to the stage of a participant reaching a place of complete safety. Regarding differences in peritraumatic fear and cognition related to the type of scenario, it should be noted that other recent research studies have found significant differences in survivors" post-and peritraumatic stress depending on the type of disaster they had experienced (Grimm, Hulse, Preiss, & Schmidt, 2011b;Shakespeare-Finch & Armstrong, 2010). One possible explanation regarding the scenario effect on personal risk might be that participants were primed; that is, if a participant was given a scenario describing a terror attack for instance, the scenario itself may have increased salience of terror attacks in the participant"s mind, which might have then resulted in higher levels of concern of becoming a victim of a terror attack.…”

Similarity in symptom patterns of posttraumatic stress among disaster-survivors: a three-step latent profile analysis

“…There is support for diverse subtypes of such manifestations, although it is unclear what factors influence symptom presentations and if they are relevant to the course of the disorder (Breslau, Reboussin, Anthony, & Storr, 2005). One possibility is that variations in exposure and secondary stressors may lead to differences in symptom presentation, and that these presentations differ in the persistence of the symptoms (Grimm, Hulse, Preiss, & Schmidt, 2012; Rosellini, Coffey, Tracy, & Galea, 2014). …”

An Exploration of Reported Cognitions During an Earthquake and Its Aftershocks

“…The three most common themes in both studies were control and reasoning, general threat of injury and death, and uncertain threat. Grimm et al examined peritraumatic cognitive content and processes associated with narratives after both natural and manmade disasters (e.g., earthquake, terror attack, bus accident, building collapse; Freitag et al, 2011;Grimm et al, 2012aGrimm et al, , 2012b. Grimm et al examined peritraumatic cognitive content and processes associated with narratives after both natural and manmade disasters (e.g., earthquake, terror attack, bus accident, building collapse; Freitag et al, 2011;Grimm et al, 2012aGrimm et al, , 2012b.…”