Disasters and Their Psychological Affects

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and acute stress disorder (ASD) are two stress disorders that occur after a traumatizing experience. PTSD is defined as a disorder that follows a distressing event outside the range of normal human experience and that is characterized by features such as intense fear, avoidance of stimuli associated with the event, and reliving the event. Acute stress disorder is defined as a disorder that is characterized by feelings of anxiety and helplessness and caused by a traumatic event. It also usually occurs within a month of the event and lasts from 2 days to 4 weeks. Dealing with experiences like the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 and the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks in 2001 were difficult for people and easily classified as traumatizing experiences. For times like these when a large number of people experience a traumatizing experience and will probably develop PTSD or ASD, there is no precedent for how to treat them. The only tool that can be used at these times is the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM), to classify the disorder. No real solution exists for a treatment process for an incident of this scale. The three journal articles I will be using show statistical data about how people dealt with these experiences and what percent of them developed PTSD or ASD. They also show how many people showed signs of these disorders but never contacted a professional to help treat it. Even as far away as Brussels, expatriates of the United States felt the effects of the attacks of September 11th.

Empirical Research

The first article was a study done on the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 and the body handlers who sorted through rubble and human remains to find all the victims of the tragedy. Going through experiences like these will often lead to stress disorders, such as PTSD. This study tests that idea using 51 of the body handlers and a survey to see what they went through psychologically at the time of the event and how that relates to their mindset years later. It also set out to test the idea that age, gender, physical exposure to the bombing, knowing a victim, or having disaster experience would change the likelihood of acquiring an anxiety disorder. It was also predicted that using "positive coping strategies including humor, favorable organizational and managerial factors, social support, level of training and use of rituals" (Doughty et al, 2002) would help reduce the chances of a disorder. Two years after the bombing surveys were mailed to 135 of the participating body handlers, including career medical examiners, pathology residents, and dental residents and students, with 51 responding. The ages of the participants ranged from 25 to 56 with an average age of 35. The majority of the participants were also married, Caucasian, men. The survey consisted of 100 questions that asked the participants questions about previous disaster experience and training, how closely connected to the bombing they were, depression symptoms at the time of the bombing and 1 year later, alcohol use after the bombing, their feelings about the work, and problems they had coping. A point system was used to measure each of these and eventually put into a formula to measure each aspect. For example, to measure physical exposure, a 4-point scale was used to test the degree of hearing and feeling the blast. This then gave each person a score of 2 to 8. Other questions asked were on a simple yes or no scale, giving a score of 1 for yes and 0 for no. Such questions consisted of, did the participant know anyone who was killed or injured or have they ever worked in a disaster scene before. The final scale used was for questions like, how often the participant had nightmares or had intrusive thoughts about the event. These were rated on a verbal scale of never, almost never, sometimes, fairly often, or often. After all of the participants finished the surveys, they were compared and put into statistical form. They compared posttraumatic stress and depression reported at the time of the incident to scores 1 year later. The scores were then compared to see the relation between stress disorders and possible predictors, like age, gender, physical exposure to the blast, and many more. The scores were also used to compare the relationship between posttraumatic stress and increased alcohol use, physical problems and seeking mental health treatment. The scores finally compared the relationship between using positive coping techniques and posttraumatic stress 1 year later. The results showed that the posttraumatic stress scores and the depression scores decreased dramatically after 1 year. The results also showed that "gender, age, physical blast exposure, knowing anyone killed or injured, prior professional disaster work, and personal disaster experience were not significantly correlated with posttraumatic stress" (Doughty et al, 2002). Increased alcohol use was reported by only 10% of the participants, but those were the individuals who were most likely to seek professional health treatment. Physical problems were also very low, with only 1 person reporting experiencing them often. Coping was also used by all the participants after the bombing, with spending time with others and focusing on the positive being the most widely used. "There were no significant differences between those who had used and had not used each coping technique on mean difference in posttraumatic stress, difference in depression, change in alcohol use, or seeking mental health treatment" (Doughty et al, 2002). Overall this study showed that the event had almost no long-term effects on the majority of body handlers, except for a few cases of increased alcohol use.

The next article was done using a survey as well, of 124 New York City workers after the attacks on the World Trade Center. It set out to predict the symptoms of PTSD related to direct exposure to the attacks of 9/11, worries about future terrorist attacks, and reduced confidence in self. Those surveyed were not directly exposed to the attacks, but between being evacuated, seeing the buildings collapse from a distance, constant media coverage and trouble returning to their homes, all the participants were indirectly exposed. The hypothesis that the researches had come up with was that individuals with greater direct exposure would have more symptoms of PTSD. The sample tested consisted of 124 New York City municipal workers, 70% being employed full-time, and 30% categorized as being seasonal or welfare work. Participants were mostly unmarried, ethnic minority members, and female. Education varied from didn't completed high school to a graduate degree. Age ranged from 19 to 60 years. And the three quarters of the incomes were below $40,000 a year. The anonymous surveys were distributed by graduate