title: Prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder and depression in two groups of children one year after the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  More than 500 studies were conducted in Haiti following the January 12 of 2010 earthquake, yet few of them assessed mental health of the population. To our knowledge, none targeted the effectiveness of various methods used to treat survivors, whether adults or children
  
  
  METHODS
  Our study aimed to assess one year after the disaster, the effect of a specific psycho-social support offered to relocated children in Port-au-Prince compared with a control group.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The two groups were homogeneous in the intensity of the peritraumatic distress they experienced. We were unable to show a significant difference between both in the average scores for PTSD, nor for depression, nor in three out of the four sub-scales of the Child Behavior Check-List. In case children, 68% and 40.9%, respectively, and 50% and 20.5% of the control group, reported severe levels of the symptoms of PTSD and depression. These surprising results can be explained by the absence of equivalence in the two groups from a socio-demographic point of view and because subjects were not randomly selected in the recruitment process.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study has not made it possible to indicate the effectiveness of a specific psycho-social support offered to children in the aftermath of the disaster. On the other hand, the sample illustrates the high prevalence (more than 50% for PTSD) of severe post-traumatic stress in this group of school-age children, one year after the earthquake. These results indicate that serious attention should be paid to the mental health aspects in reconstruction program for the country.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire UTRPP Université Paris, 13 Nord 99 Avenue Jean-Baptiste Clément, 93430 Villetaneuse, France; Laboratoire du Stress Traumatique/Universite de Toulouse, France; Universite d׳Etat D׳Haiti/FASCH, Haiti. Electronic address: juditeblanc@yahoo.fr.
authors.forename: Judite
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Blanc
authors.affiliation: Center for Anxiety and Traumatic Stress Disorders, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, RSF - MGH Home Base Program, One Bowdoin Square, 6th Floor Boston, MA 02114, USA.
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Bui
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire UTRPP Université Paris, 13 Nord 99 Avenue Jean-Baptiste Clément, 93430 Villetaneuse, France.
authors.forename: Yoram
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Mouchenik
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire C.R.P.P.C Université Lyon 2, France.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Derivois
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire du Stress Traumatique/LST (EA 4560), University Hospital of Toulouse, France; Université Paul Sabatier Toulouse-III, France.
authors.forename: Philippe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Birmes
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003863:Depression / Q000453:epidemiology*; D055866:Earthquakes; D005260:Female; D006205:Haiti / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence; D012944:Social Support; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000453:epidemiology*; D017741:Survivors / Q000523:psychology*
keywords: Children; Depression; Earthquake; Post-traumatic stress disorder