Multiple natural disaster exposure effects on stress adjustment and resilience in clinical samples

Abstract

Stress adjustment and resilience after multiple natural disaster exposure, specifically two successive earthquakes (i.e. 2009 and 2016 earthquakes) have been investigated in persons with mental disorder and compared to a clinical sample evaluated after the first seismic 2009 event. Seventy-one persons referred to the Mental Health Service of L’Aquila for psychotic, mood and anxiety disorders, were evaluated for ‘bounce back resilience’ (BRS) and subjective adjustment after the 2016 natural disaster, the earthquake that hit Central Italy. They had already been exposed to a previous natural disaster, the earthquake that hit L’Aquila in 2009 (i.e. ‘2009/2016 sample’). The 2016 evaluations have been compared to that previously obtained at the 2009 event in an independent clinical sample (i.e. ‘2009 sample’). A relevant lower number of persons refer a good adjustment after the second natural disaster when compared to the assessment performed on the independent clinical ‘2009 sample’. After the second natural disaster, the total sample showed no differences in BRS scores compared to the 2009 sample. However, when diagnoses were taken into account, the highest BRS scores were observed in the sample of persons with psychoses and mood disorders in the ‘2009/2016 sample’. In contrast, those with anxiety disorders showed the lowest one. Among mental health service clients hit twice by a natural disaster in seven years, those with anxiety disorders are ‘sensitized’ to the trauma, therefore susceptible of more problematic adjustment.