Abstract
With the help of personal face-to-face interviews, a study was made of a group of Swedish tsunami survivors (n=21) who were non-bereaved and extremely exposed during the 2004 tsunami disaster in Southeast Asia. They all scored high on IES-22R and GHQ-12 three years post-disaster. The morbidity was very low: one survivor met criteria for PTSD and one for major depression.
Highlights
The prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder, PTSD, after a natural disaster is generally lower than that documented in studies of man-made or technological disasters [1]
Measuring morbidity after major disasters by help of personal face-to-face interviews has earlier been used in very few Scandinavian studies [4,5,6]
The motivation for this study is the fact that the best way to diagnose a psychiatric disorder is by personal face-to-face interviews
Summary
The prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder, PTSD, after a natural disaster is generally lower than that documented in studies of man-made or technological disasters [1]. In natural disasters it is more difficult to explicitly identify an obvious group of direct victims in that large areas are usually affected. As suggested by Galea et al [1], this fact could possibly explain the lower figures of PTSD. Measuring morbidity after major disasters by help of personal face-to-face interviews has earlier been used in very few Scandinavian studies [4,5,6]. Telephone interviews have been used for long-term follow-up studies [7,8]. The motivation for this study is the fact that the best (maybe only) way to diagnose a psychiatric disorder is by personal face-to-face interviews
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