The Göteborg discothèque fire, 1998.
Findings from a study of 563 adolescents' reactions following a discotheque fire that killed 63 young people in Göteborg in October 1998 are presented. The group answered a questionnaire seven months following the disaster. The questionnaire included the Impact of Event Scale (IES) and the Birleson Depression Self-Rating Scale (DSRS). The level of trauma was found to be very high, while depression scores were less elevated. A little under a third of the students scored above a clinical cut-off point (> 35) on the IES, indicating high posttraumatic stress levels. Girls evidenced more depression and traumatic stress reactions than boys. Levels of reactions increased with more closeness (knowing victims personally) and if the adolescents were of non-Swedish origin.
Dyregrov
Atle
A
Center for Crisis Psychology, Bergen, Norway. atle@uib.no
Frykholm
Ann-Margret
AM
Lilled
Lars
L
Broberg
Anders G
AG
Holmberg
Ingvar
I
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002391:Catchment Area, Health; D003419:Crisis Intervention; D005260:Female; D005390:Fires; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011633:Public Facilities; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D017678:Sex Distribution; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013548:Sweden / Q000453:epidemiology