14 DAY TRIAL // Florida State University sociologists have found that adolescents who survived 1992's Hurricane Andrew suffered from mental health problems many years later, a finding that has more dire implications for those who lived through last year's devastating Hurricane Katrina.
The short-term mental health consequences of Hurricane Andrew have already been documented, but many have assumed that there will be no long term effects. Not so! The hurricane increased the probability of long term distress for people who were predisposed to depression to a certain extent.
"We found that people who experienced prior stressful events and who had pre-existing symptoms of psychological distress were more adversely affected by exposure to hurricane-related stressful events," lead author David Russell said. "Based on our findings, we believe intervention efforts should include assessments of the prior experiences and psychological well-being of disaster victims. Doing so will aid response workers in identifying those most at risk for developing post-disaster psychological problems."
Researchers studied data from 975 Miami-Dade County adolescents who lived through Hurricane Andrew to assess psychological distress before, during and five to seven years after the storm. They measured disruption by counting the occurrence of five events: damage to one's home; being away from home for longer than a week; injury to a family member; having one or both parents lose a job; and having to stay in a shelter.
Scientists found that "the storm of emotion" following the hurricane increased the risk for certain stressful life events, such as failing a grade in school, being sent away from home or having to live away from parents. Russell said that the results of the study might even underestimate the problem because those most adversely affected by the hurricane may have relocated from the Miami-Dade area.
The findings suggest there will be even greater mental health consequences of Hurricane Katrina, which has caused 50 times more deaths than Hurricane Andrew, and which is thought to have had more than five times the economic cost of Andrew.
"We believe that victims of Hurricane Katrina will be at an increased risk for mental health problems for many years to come," Russell said. "The extent of damage was widespread and hundreds of thousands of people were displaced from their homes and families. Those aspects of the storm mean that many people were exposed to some degree of adversity, and that puts them at greater risk for mental health problems both immediately and over a long period of time.The slow response by governmental agencies to rescue the victims produced feelings of hopelessness, isolation and anger. In the meantime, exposure to human carnage has placed victims and recovery workers at great risk for a wide array of psychological problems."
Picture: The aftermath of Hurricane Andrew in Florida