[Acute mental disorders in children and adolescents held as hostages by the terrorists in Beslan].
Stress reactions were studied in 92 children and adolescents held as hostages by the terrorists in Beslan (September, 2004). A special feature of mental trauma in this group of hostages is its extraordinary severity and duration, marked physical exhaustion and dehydration, a high proportion of small children, high frequency of burns, wounds and traumas. All the examinees demonstrated main signs of acute stress reactions (ASR): disturbed consciousness, psychomotor disorders, emotional disorders and autonomic changes. Moreover, there were such ASR appearances as repeated experience of trauma, avoidance, dissociation and regressive symptoms, hallucinations and delusion. A very high frequency of anxiety, fear and sleep disorder was registered. Age-specific characteristics of ASR are shown: higher frequency and longer duration of disturbed consciousness in small children, inverse relation between the degree of emotional experience differentiation and the victim's age. More severe mental disorders develop in victims who have lost their relatives.
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D000208:Acute Disease; D000293:Adolescent; D002391:Catchment Area, Health; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011329:Prisoners / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011596:Psychomotor Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology; D012426:Russia / Q000453:epidemiology; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology*; D023481:Terrorism / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*