Massive earthquakes in Turkey and Syria last week killed tens of thousands and caused tens of billions of dollars in damage. It also has a significant impact on the mental health of survivors.
Research confirms that natural disasters like this magnitude 7.8 earthquake cause acute trauma to survivors and increase the risk of chronic illnesses such as anxiety and depression. Ben Beaglehole is a psychiatrist and Senior Lecturer in the Department of Psychology at the University of Otago, Christchurch, New Zealand. Beaglehole and his colleagues occurred in New Zealand from 2010 to 2011, as part of his 40-plus-year study measuring the health and development of a cohort of more than 1,200 people born in the late 1970s. We investigated the mental health impact of the Canterbury earthquake. They found that the incidence of anxiety disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, and nicotine dependence increased his year after the earthquake. This increase correlated with increased exposure to earthquakes. In other words, the closer you are to the most severe effects of an earthquake, the more likely you are to suffer from mental disorders.
Scientific American We spoke with Beagle Hall on how deadly earthquakes and their aftermath affect mental health, the role of socioeconomic factors and the cultural environment, and factors that promote resilience and post-traumatic growth. .
[An edited transcript of the interview follows.]
How do we study these kinds of natural disasters? And what do we know about past disasters that can help inform our response to recent earthquakes? Turkey and Syria?
The reason I started disaster research is because Christchurch, New Zealand [and nearby areas of the surrounding region of Canterbury] There was a series of severe earthquakes in 2010-2011. At the time, I was a clinical psychiatrist and had some observations about what was happening from our practice. So I became interested in the evidence related to disasters and mental health.
In terms of how we study these things, first disaster has to happen. Some studies are very passive. When disaster strikes, people decide that the impact needs to be measured, so they do research. However, there are things that can improve the quality of research. We think very carefully about when it matters to measure effectiveness. Ideally, the effect he doesn’t want to measure as a one-off. Perhaps it makes little sense to measure the impact after his week of catastrophe. Measuring impact over time is important. If possible, it would be helpful to be able to compare measurements to pre-disaster measurements. Because, for example, it’s easy to assume that the rate of depression you’re seeing is due to earthquakes. But if there was a high rate before the disaster, it is a confounding factor.
Many people don’t think about doing this survey until after a disaster, but if you have a baseline measurement, it’s important. In the absence of baseline measurements, findings can be managed by comparing findings to findings in less exposed areas (areas with less or no earthquake impact). And finally, decide in which population to measure the effect. It’s easy to find a lot of people you want to talk to, but are they representative of the population you care about? These things matter: When do you measure effectiveness? do you measure for? And what do the findings compare to?
You studied the psychological effects of 2010 – 2011 New Zealand Canterbury earthquake. what did you find?
One of the papers I wrote was based on data from the Christchurch Health and Development Study, a birth cohort study that has been going on for over 40 years. [Editor’s Note: In a birth cohort study, researchers follow a group of people born in a certain period from infancy through adulthood.] [The researchers] Multiple pre-earthquake measurements allowed us to examine other factors such as previous exposure to trauma, sociodemographic factors and the impact of previous psychiatric illnesses. These factors can be taken into account when trying to estimate how the Canterbury earthquake affected mental health. You can This is because some people are more likely to experience mental health problems and are more likely to experience a bad earthquake.
After a major earthquake, who is most at risk of trauma and other mental health problems?
When thinking about the effects of earthquakes, one might think that they affect everyone indiscriminately or uniformly. But the fact is, living in a poorer part of town increases the chances of building destruction. It is also more likely that there are other factors that may increase the risk of depression. There is a possibility.
What we do know about trauma and mental health is that while people can grow through trauma, it is not recommended because trauma also causes negative effects. It interacts with risk factors to increase post-disaster mental health problems.
How does the environment and local conditions in which an earthquake occurs affect the likelihood that survivors will suffer mental health consequences?
If you could compare an earthquake in Syria with an earthquake in Christchurch, I would say Christchurch is the place. We have very good building codes here, so some buildings collapsed and people lost their lives, but most of the time no people were killed by the buildings. We had a lot of insurance and most private homeowners had insurance. We have a free and fairly intact healthcare system. They were also able to provide additional financial assistance, such as counseling and doctor visits. It’s not the shaking that matters so much.that’s really all [that happens during the recovery period]Some of them are going to be pretty severe, especially in Syria, but you can see from afar that there are some real problems with buildings in Turkey as well. Japan can be compared to another example of a country that has experienced, but they designed buildings not only to keep people alive, but to keep them in use.
How can people deal with the very immediate trauma of experiencing an earthquake and losing loved ones, and the long-term consequences of the destruction of the physical infrastructure of a city and the lack of continuous medical care? ?
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is very important. Priorities are clean water, shelter and rescue. If you have some kind of psychiatric need now, it’s not therapy, it’s psychological first aid.In fact, it’s largely focused on providing a social need, perhaps just to reassure, help people get some sleep, and help people connect and talk. Lovers instead of saying ‘I need to offer behavioral therapy’ [a type of talk therapy used to treat mental health disorders].
Such assistance does not have to be provided by a professional. I don’t think it’s right to try to impose yourself on too many outside experts who don’t have local knowledge. Priority is given to the extensive physical repairs that need to occur. Also, psychological support should be relatively modest and supportive rather than trying to label and treat the disease at the moment.
What are the qualities that make society more resilient to this kind of trauma, and what are the factors that make things worse?
The more trauma a society experiences, the more likely people are to experience mental health problems. And the more cohesive a society is, the more protective it will be. I think social structure is important. We need a well-organized society to be able to respond in a caring way.
We wrote a paper on post-traumatic growth after the Canterbury earthquake.and the [Christchurch] The Health and Development Study also produced a previous paper on post-traumatic stress. The paper used complex mathematics to try to predict who would grow through adversity and who would experience mental health problems. One of the factors from that study was ‘traumatic pain’. Did you believe you were going to die when the earthquake hit? That was one factor. The other was called “Disruption Distress”. In the days to months after the earthquake, how much trouble did you have in your life? These factors predict post-traumatic stress. If you have a very difficult experience during or after an earthquake, you are more likely to develop post-traumatic stress symptoms, but you are also more likely to work through them and grow.A new spiritual self. . Most people are resilient. So while this is a devastating disaster, it should not be assumed that people will inevitably suffer from mental health problems.
Among the components of post-disaster consequences is this idea of severity of experience or severity of exposure. For example, in Christchurch, the central city was the most affected. If you were there, you would have seen people die and buildings collapsed. There was no. Infrastructure was fine. Exposure there was much less. The eastern part of the town suffered further damage. Therefore, the greater the exposure, the greater the impact is expected. The media footage I’ve seen of the earthquakes in Syria and Turkey appears to have caused severe radiation exposure over a wide area, so many people are likely to be adversely affected.
How do people deal with survivor guilt—the guilt of surviving when many around them didn’t?
It’s not an area I’m familiar with. But from a psychological point of view, I think people often move through different stages of thinking depending on the events in their lives. For example, you remember people talking about stages of grief. My suspicion is that survivor guilt might be like that… believe it or not. You may feel guilty. You may be grateful. You probably have swirling emotions and are not always well-organized or well-ordered. That’s something you have to adapt to. If you’re stuck feeling guilty, that could potentially be an area where you need to see a therapist.
Are there factors specific to Turkey and Syria that shape the impact of earthquakes on people’s mental health?
Syria may feel very abandoned. It’s a part of the world that went through a very difficult time during the civil war.and [people there] You’ll think, “Why is this happening to me?” At least in Turkey, the situation continues to be difficult as we have seen in the media, but I think it will be much easier to deal with. But solving the problem in Syria is even more difficult.
Given the extent of that disaster, it appears to have very severe consequences for some, despite being largely resilient.
