Elderly survivors of the Lockerbie air disaster

✍ Scribed by Hilary M. Livingston; Martin G. Livingston; D. Neil Brooks; William W. McKinlay

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1992
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 456 KB
• Volume: 7
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0885-6230
• DOI: 10.1002/gps.930071007

✦ Synopsis

Thirty-one elderly people were examined in Lockerbie and compared with 24 younger survivors of the disaster which took place in December 1988. Examination took place within one year of the disaster, but was timed to avoid the anniversary period. All subjects were in Lockerbie at the time the aeroplane exploded in mid-air. Examinations werc conducted for purposes of medico-legal assessment. The elderly had similar responses to the younger disaster victims, the majority of whom met DSM-111-R criteria for PTSD. The elderly, however, had a very high incidence of coexisting major depression, unlike the younger population. Loss or injury to friends and the witnessing of human remains was positively correlated with a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder in the elderly but not in the younger subjects. Neither material nor personal loss, nor the witnessing of human remains, was associated with a diagnosis of depression in the elderly, although significant material loss was associated with depression in the younger patients.

KEY woms-Elderly, disaster, outcome, PTSD, depression, loss.

Lockerbie is a small village located in a pleasant pocket of the south west of Scotland. When Pan-Am Flight 103 exploded in mid-air on December 21, 1988, at about 7.00 pm, many of the village's inhabitants were watching a popular television programme. A huge fireball of burning aviation fuel destroyed part of Sherwood Crescent, in one of the village's new housing schemes. The explosion generated a large crater. Several people were lost without trace in the fire. Survivors were often trapped in their homes by the flames. Many witnessed mutilated human remains in their garden. Two typical cases are briefly described.