Posted on 04/29/2019 9:37:41 AM PDT by cll
Food shortages, damaged homes, fear of death, loved ones leaving. The cumulative stresses of Hurricane Maria contributed to thousands of schoolchildren developing symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, in Puerto Rico, according to a study published Friday.
The study in JAMA Network Open found that 7.2% of the students reported “clinically significant” symptoms of PTSD. More girls tended to show signs of PTSD than boys.
Researchers surveyed 96,108 public school students five to nine months after the 2017 hurricane. The cohort included youth in third through 12th grades across different regions of the island.
That just speaks to how big Maria was, how destructive Maria was island-wide. And it didn’t matter what your income was or your location was on the island — you were affected.
The Puerto Rico Department of Education — which partnered with the Medical University of South Carolina for this study — is using the data to target areas with the greatest need for mental health services, the study said.
(Excerpt) Read more at pbs.org ...
"Notably, Orengo-Aguayo said, the level of PTSD symptoms reported in the study is lower than what was expected. Some studies show up to a third of children will develop chronic symptoms after surviving a natural disaster, the authors wrote.
Familial ties or the fact that the study was conducted several months after the storm could have played a role in the children’s resilience, she said. Or the children might still be attuned to trying to survive".
Or read from the JAMA report itself:
"Comparison with studies conducted after other mainland US disasters, however, indicated that the rates of likely PTSD observed in the current study were lower than those typically reported (13%-30%).8,12,33 Similar to the trends in trajectory of diagnoses of PTSD noted earlier, the consensus findings of these studies indicated a steep rate of remission beyond 8 months after the disaster. Although direct comparisons across studies conducted at different times and in different contexts are not fully informative, the differences noted in the base rates of PTSD are suggestive of some interpretations. In particular, the fact that likely diagnoses of PTSD were much less common in the current data (despite findings of extreme devastation, prolonged impairment to the infrastructure, and one of the highest mortality rates among all natural disasters in US history) confers the possibility of moderating factors between traumatic exposure and the eventual development of symptoms of PTSD that were not assessed in the current study. For example, biological differences have been previously noted to be associated with differential responses to traumatic events, and the possibility of sociocultural factors such as familismo, a cultural value placing importance on strong family ties, may play a role in a given population’s collective response to adversity and confer potential resilience.34 The lack of inclusion of such potential moderating factors is a limitation of this study".
I will be working in PR starting next week. I will report back with on the ground information.
Crappiest commute since I went from L.A. to D.C.
Careful grasshopper.
“Why did such a terrible thing happen, Mommy?”
“It happened because God was angry, dear.”
“Why was God angry, Mommy?”
“It was probably something you did.”
Imagine Eskimos having PTSD because of a blizzard or a cold winter.
I will be.
It will be difficult. I think I shall need my Marriott Platinum For Life status as a shield.
*bow*
This was no ordinary hurricane. I know, I was there.
Imagine Eskimos having PTSD because of a blizzard or a cold winter.
>>“It was probably something you did.”<<
Every time you masturbate, an island gets hit with a hurricane.
3.4 million Crazy Checks on the way.
In fact,25+ years working in a big city ER...seeing murder victims,suicides,car accidents,end stage cancer patients...has left me with many clear (and very unpleasant) memories.But I've never developed PTSD.
I can see combat vets with PTSD...as well as people in certain other situations.But not hurricanes.
My thoughts exactly!
Or is this like many other things now “clinically determined” in ways that have expanded the meaning of some psychological finding to the point of being a “catch all” term for a bunch of actually different things.
It is almost like any form of crisis born stress is now called PTSD. Whatever happened to the truth - “showing signs of stress”, pure and simply stress.
Charlie: When I was a little girl, my mother spoke of a prophecy, of a time when all the world would be covered in darkness and the fate of mankind would be decided. One night I finally got the courage to ask my mother, why God was so mad at His children. “I don’t know,” she said tucking the covers around me, “I guess He just got tired of all the bullshit.”
—from the movie LEGION
Well, I may be in for a little bout of Cli-Fi induced PTSD since it was 68 deg yesterday and the forecast for tomorrow is 60% snow rain mix. Is that ER worthy? :-)
My parents,as well as all my aunts and uncles,experienced the Hurricane of 1938,no ordinary hurricane.
None of them developed PTSD.
These are kids that the study focused on.
BINGO ! social security disability
I’m sure an expensive government program could chase away this trauma.
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