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Randomized Controlled Trial
. 2012;7(6):e38964.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0038964. Epub 2012 Jun 26.

Resilience in the face of disaster: prevalence and longitudinal course of mental disorders following hurricane Ike

Robert H Pietrzak  1 , Melissa Tracy, Sandro Galea, Dean G Kilpatrick, Kenneth J Ruggiero, Jessica L Hamblen, Steven M Southwick, Fran H Norris
Affiliations
Randomized Controlled Trial

Resilience in the face of disaster: prevalence and longitudinal course of mental disorders following hurricane Ike

Robert H Pietrzak et al. PLoS One. 2012.

Abstract

Objectives: Natural disasters may increase risk for a broad range of psychiatric disorders, both in the short- and in the medium-term. We sought to determine the prevalence and longitudinal course of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), panic disorder (PD), depression, and suicidality in the first 18 months after Hurricane Ike.

Methods: Six hundred fifty-eight adults representative of Galveston and Chambers Counties, Texas participated in a random, population-based survey. The initial assessment was conducted 2 to 5 months after Hurricane Ike struck Galveston Bay on September 13, 2008. Follow-up assessments were conducted at 5 to 9 and 14 to 18 months after Hurricane Ike.

Results: Past-month prevalence of any mental disorder (20.6% to 10.9%) and hurricane-related PTSD (6.9% to 2.5%) decreased over time. Past-month prevalence of PTSD related to a non-disaster traumatic event (5.8% to 7.1%), GAD (3.1% to 1.8%), PD (0.8% to 0.7%), depression (5.0% to 5.6%), and suicidality (2.6% to 4.2%) remained relatively stable over time.

Conclusions: PTSD, both due to the hurricane and due to other traumatic events, was the most prevalent psychiatric disorder 2 to 5 months after Hurricane Ike. Prevalence of psychiatric disorders declined rapidly over time, suggesting that the vast majority of individuals exposed to this natural disaster 'bounced back' and were resilient to long-term mental health consequences of this large-scale traumatic event.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Trajectories of Ike-related PTSD (n = 448).
Figure 2
Figure 2. Trajectories of generalized anxiety disorder (n = 448).
Figure 3
Figure 3. Trajectories of panic disorder (n = 448).
Figure 4
Figure 4. Trajectories of depression (n = 448).
Figure 5
Figure 5. Trajectories of suicidality (n = 448).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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