HEALTH TIPS: The effects linger
Health Tip – Audio Version - The effects linger
Health Tip – Healthy Next Step: A Real Illness: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) (PDF – KB) (National Institute of Mental Health)
Long after calamity ends, suffering can continue – as post-traumatic stress disorder. Sandro Galea of the University of Michigan reviewed mental aftershocks of disasters from a 1963 landslide and flood in Italy to the September 11th terror attacks in the United States in 2001.
“Anywhere from a tenth to a third of those who initially have psychiatric illness post-traumatic stress go on to have symptoms six months beyond an event and probably keep those symptoms for years thereafter.”
Galea says victims can learn to understand and control their symptoms, which can include severe anxiety and depression, but it can take therapy and sometimes drugs.
His study, in Epidemiologic Reviews, was supported by the National Institutes of Health.
Health Tip courtesy of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Last revised: September, 26 2006