The prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder among children and adolescents affected by tsunami disaster in Tamil Nadu

Abstract

The Asian earthquake and subsequent tsunami of December 2004, one of the largest natural disasters in recent history, resulted in the deaths of over 250,000 people and massive destruction in 8 countries. As with any disaster, children are at risk for developing short- and long-term psychological consequences, including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). One area particularly affected by this disaster was southern India. Five hundred twenty-three juvenile survivors of the tsunami were studied to determine the prevalence of PTSD. The survey was conducted in 2 waves. Interviews were conducted by postgraduate psychiatric social work students, proficient in the local language of Tamil and trained in PTSD-related data collection. The Impact of Event Scale-8 items Tamil Version and Child Behaviour Checklist Post-traumatic Stress Disorder-Tamil Revised Version, with age-specific measures and validated for the local culture and language, were used for the study. Our study revealed a prevalence of 70.7% for acute PTSD and 10.9% for delayed onset PTSD. PTSD was more prevalent among girls and more severe among adolescents exposed to loss of life or property. These results indicate that PTSD is widely prevalent among the survivors of the tsunami, reinforcing the need to develop an effective, culturally sensitive outreach therapy strategy for them.