Depressive and Anxious Symptomatology After September 2001

Abstract

This study compares depressive and panic-related anxious symptomatology before the World Trade Center Disaster and two contemporaneous local disasters in Switzerland with data collected immediately afterward, and approximately 2 and 7 years later. Four cross-sectional surveys of representative samples of the Swiss population were conducted in March 2000 (N = 1026), October 2001 (N = 1014), October 2003 (N = 1004), and February 2008 (N = 501), using a standardized screening instrument. Immediately after the disasters, the mean depressive symptomatology score increased significantly and remained elevated but stable up to 2 years after the disasters, decreasing significantly from 2003 to 2008. However, anxious symptomatology rates did not change over time, neither immediately after the disasters nor 2 or 7 years later.