Psychological and health problems in a geographically proximate population time-sampled continuously for three months after the September 11th, 2001 terrorist incidents

Ford, Julián D.; Adams, Mildred; Dailey, Wayne F.

doi:10.1080/10615800701303215

Cited by 74 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…First, the contractors were all men and older than the average soldier. Gender and age may influence PTSD, depression, and psychological distress scores (Bruce et al, 2001;Ford, Adams, & Dailey, 2007). Second, although contractors and soldiers may share an exposure to grave danger, the resources and support they are provided with to deal with these challenges differ considerably, as our study reveals.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 54%

The psychological health of contractors working in war zones

Feinstein

Botes²

2009

Journal of Traumatic Stress

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This study examines the psychological health of contractors working in war zones. Seventy-nine contractors completed an Internet-based psychiatric assessment. The sample was exclusively male with a mean age of 43 (SD = 7) years. The number of contractors whose scores exceeded the cutoff points for depression, psychological distress, and excessive weekly alcohol consumption were 15 (20%), 21 (28%), and 13 (17%), respectively. A third of contractors had posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) scores in the moderate to severe range. Approximately 10% of contractors had employer-organized access to psychological help following deployment. This study provides the first empirical data showing that a significant minority of contractors working in war zones are psychologically distressed and not receiving therapy.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 54%

The psychological health of contractors working in war zones

Feinstein

Botes²

2009

Journal of Traumatic Stress

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“…A prospective study of residents of Connecticut, a state contiguous with New York City, found that although psychological problems related to the terrorist incidents were reported by more than half of the respondents, measures of overall physical or mental health did not change in the 3 months after September 11th (Ford, Adams, & Dailey, 2007). Some evidence has shown, however, physical signs of stress in remote populations.…”

Section: Distress and Pathologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Weighing the Costs of Disaster

Bonanno

Brewin

Kaniasty

et al. 2010

Psychol Sci Public Interest

980

443

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SummaryDisasters typically strike quickly and cause great harm. Unfortunately, because of the spontaneous and chaotic nature of disasters, the psychological consequences have proved exceedingly difficult to assess. Published reports have often overestimated a disaster's psychological cost to survivors, suggesting, for example, that many if not most survivors will develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD); at the same time, these reports have underestimated the scope of the disaster's broader impact in other domains. We argue that such ambiguities can be attributed to methodological limitations. When we focus on only the most scientifically sound research-studies that use prospective designs or include multivariate analyses of predictor and outcome measures-relatively clear conclusions about the psychological parameters of disasters emerge. We summarize the major aspects of these conclusions in five key points and close with a brief review of possible implications these points suggest for disaster intervention.1. Disasters cause serious psychological harm in a minority of exposed individuals. People exposed to disaster show myriad psychological problems, including PTSD, grief, depression, anxiety, stress-related health costs, substance abuse, and suicidal ideation. However, severe levels of these problems are typically observed only in a relatively small minority of exposed individuals. In adults, the proportion rarely exceeds 30% of most samples, and in the vast majority of methodologically sound studies, the level is usually considerably lower. Among youth, elevated symptoms are common in the first few months following a high-impact disaster, but again, chronic symptom elevations rarely exceed 30% of the youth sampled.2. Disasters produce multiple patterns of outcome, including psychological resilience. In addition to chronic dysfunction, other patterns of disaster outcome are typically observed. Some survivors recover their psychological equilibrium within a period ranging from several months to 1 or 2 years. A sizeable proportion, often more than half of those exposed, experience only transient distress and maintain a stable trajectory of healthy functioning or resilience. Resilient outcomes have been evidenced across different methodologies, including recent studies that identified patterns of outcome using relatively sophisticated data analytic approaches, such as latent growth mixture modeling.3. Disaster outcome depends on a combination of risk and resilience factors. As is true for most highly aversive events, individual differences in disaster outcomes are informed by a number of unique risk and resilience factors, including variables related to the context in which the disaster occurs, variables related to proximal exposure during the disaster, and variables related to distal exposure in the disaster's aftermath. Multivariate studies indicate that there is no one single dominant predictor of disaster outcomes. Rather, as with traumatic life events more generally, most predictor variables exert small...

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“…A review of 160 catastrophes demonstrated more negative mental health responses following terrorist disasters than following natural or technical disasters (Norris, Friedman, & Watson, 2002). Emotional distress, anxiety and depressive symptoms are common reactions in populations directly affected by terrorist attacks (Chen, Chung, Chen, Fang, & Chen, 2003; Ford, Adams, & Dailey, 2007). In the three to five days after the attacks on 11 September 2001 in the US, 44% experienced substantial stress reactions, 90% experienced at least low levels of stress and 47% reported increased anxiety and fear (DiMaggio & Galea, 2006; Schuster et al, 2001).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although the risk of being directly hit by such attacks is quite limited, the perception that anyone can be hit at any moment may engender feelings of threat. Rather than objective factors, such as proximity to the terrorist attack, the perception of threat has a psychological effect (Ford et al, 2007; Hansen, Nissen, & Heir, 2013; Nissen, Birkeland Nielsen, Solberg, Bang Hansen, & Heir, 2015). Although several studies have found an association between exposure and post-traumatic symptoms (Hansen et al, 2013; Heir, Blix, & Knatten, 2016), other studies did not find such association (Bleich et al, 2003; Ford et al, 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A meta-analysis showed that PTSD due to terrorist attacks was more prevalent in Western Europe than in North America (DiMaggio & Galea, 2006). Protective factors that have been reported are older age, social support, being married (Ford et al, 2007) and community characteristics, such as availability of resources, the general sense of support and solidarity (Stein et al, 2013). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Association between feeling threatened by a terrorist attack and subjective health: a web survey a week after the attacks of 22 March 2016 in Belgium

Deschepper

Six

Gidron

et al. 2018

European Journal of Psychotraumatology

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Background: The wave of terrorist attacks over the past years in Europe and other regions may cause problems such as anxiety and depressive symptoms. Some studies suggest that perceived threat might also trigger physical health problems.Objective: To investigate the association between feeling threatened and subjective health during the week following a terrorist attack.Method: Online survey with a self-selected sample in the Belgian population one week after the terrorist attacks in 2016. Participants were invited through the Belgian media to fill in a questionnaire in Dutch, French or English on a website. The main outcomes were the association between ‘feeling threatened’ and subjective health problems. Perceived threat was measured with the question ‘During the week after the attacks … Did you feel threatened?’ Subjective health was measured by using standardized scales (ACSA, PHQ-4, PHQ-15).Results: A total of 2620 respondents completed the questionnaire, of whom 69.8% were female, 27.7% lived and 43.1% worked in Brussels. Gender, age, place of living and working, media exposure, religiousness and religious affiliation were associated significantly with higher perceived threat. A total of 21% of the respondents felt much or very much threatened during the week after the attacks. They reported significantly higher levels of mental and physical health problems. The most frequently reported problems were anxiety and depressive symptoms. The health problems that differentiated most markedly between those with low and high levels of perceived threat were fainting spells, chest pain and shortness of breath.Conclusion: In a self-selected sample of respondents, ‘feeling threatened’ was strongly associated with lower level of wellbeing and higher levels of mental and physical health problems. The most prevalent health problems were mental health problems but the most pronounced differences between people with low versus high levels of perceived threat were physical health problems.

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Psychological and health problems in a geographically proximate population time-sampled continuously for three months after the September 11th, 2001 terrorist incidents

Cited by 74 publications

References 54 publications

The psychological health of contractors working in war zones

The psychological health of contractors working in war zones

Weighing the Costs of Disaster

Association between feeling threatened by a terrorist attack and subjective health: a web survey a week after the attacks of 22 March 2016 in Belgium

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