Posttraumatic stress in aging World War II survivors after a fireworks disaster: A controlled prospective study
✍ Scribed by Inge Bramsen; Henk M. van der Ploeg; Maarten Boers
- Publisher
- Springer
- Year
- 2006
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 127 KB
- Volume
- 19
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0894-9867
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Little is known about the effects of cumulative trauma and whether traumatized individuals are more vulnerable. In 2000, a fireworks disaster created the possibility to examine this issue among World War II survivors who were part of an ongoing longitudinal study. Between 1998 and2000 posttraumatic stress increased in disaster exposed respondents as opposed to the control group. War-related reexperiencing and avoidance also increased. The strongest increase occurred in disaster-exposed respondents who had low levels of wartime stress and a slight decrease occurred in those who had high wartime exposure. This unique controlled observation suggests that disasters do increase the levels of posttraumatic stress, and that reactivation of previous traumatic events generally occurs. However, the vulnerability hypothesis was not supported.
Many studies have shown that war, violence, and disaster may lead to posttraumatic stress symptoms several decades later (Bramsen & Van der Ploeg, 1999a;Eberly & Engdahl, 1991;Green, 1991;Kulka et al., 1990; Mc-Farlane, 1988). The majority of studies in this field are cross-sectional and provide no information on time of onset and duration of symptoms. The course of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms in aging survivors has received even less empirical study. Some authors have claimed that typical stressors of late life, such as loss of loved ones and decline in physical health, may increase the vulnerability of survivors and lead to an exacerbation of symptoms (Macleod, 1994). In support of this view, case studies have described how individuals who at first had adjusted well