A Comparison of Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms in Survivors of the Chi-Chi Earthquake and Morakot Flood
摘要
Objective: The purpose of this study was to compare the posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSSs) in survivor of the Morakot Flood and the Chi-Chi Earthquake. Methods: We surveyed 771 survivors (337 males and 434 females, with an average age of 42.0±15.2 years of age) 15 months after the Morakot Flood in southern Taiwan and compared the statistics with the previous data for 461 victims (209 males and 252 females, with an average age of 54.3±18.1 years of age) in a village close to the epicenter in central Taiwan 21 months after the Chi-Chi Earthquake. This study compared the prevalence of the PTSSs occurrence after those two different natural disasters. Results: We found that in this study there were significant differences in the demographic data between the two groups, and that no significant statistical variances existed in PTSSs (6.9% vs. 5.0%) or in the re-experience category (20.3% vs. 23.4%). We also found that the survivors of the Morakot Flood reported a significantly higher prevalence (15.3% vs. 10.4%, X^2=5.57, p=0.02) in avoidance and numbness categories of PTSSs, but that Chi-Chi Earthquake survivors reported a significantly higher prevalence (4.0% vs. 19.7%, X^2=71.10, p＜0.001) in the hyperarousal category of PTSSs. Conclusion: Both disasters caused a high prevalence of PTSSs. The observed prevalence can be served as the basis for estimating of the number of medical and psychological professionals required to treat the affected population and for the variance analysis of finding out potential causes.