Posttraumatic stress disorder among professional and non-professional rescuers involved in an earthquake in Taiwan.
This study investigated the prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among professional and non-professional rescue workers involved in the 1999 Chi-Chi Earthquake in Taiwan. One month following the disaster, 252 rescue workers (167 professional rescue workers, 85 non-professional volunteers) were surveyed with the Chinese version of the Davidson Trauma Scale (DTS-C) and the Chinese version of the SPAN (SPAN-C). Non-professional rescuers had significantly higher scores than professional rescuers on both the DTS-C and the SPAN-C. The prevalences of PTSD, as defined by a DTS-C score > or = 44, among professional and non-professional rescuers were 19.8% and 31.8%, respectively. Among the three subscales of the DTS-C, only scores on the numbness/avoidance subscale were significantly higher in the non-professional than in the professional rescue workers. The results of this study suggest that disaster rescue work is associated with a high level of stress even for highly trained professionals and may lead to mental health problems.
Guo
Ya-Jun
YJ
Department of Psychiatry, Taipei Municipal Ho-Ping General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.
Chen
Chin-Hung
CH
Lu
Mong-Liang
ML
Tan
Happy Kuy-Lok
HK
Lee
Huei-Wen
HW
Wang
Tsu-Nai
TN
D000328:Adult; D001143:Arousal; D003710:Demography; D004190:Disasters; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence; D018635:Rescue Work / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000208:ethnology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013624:Taiwan; D014838:Volunteers / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*