Citation

Weems CF. Curr. Psychiatry Rep. 2015; 17(7): e588.

Affiliation

Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Iowa State University, 4380 Palmer, Ames, IA, 50011-4380, USA, cweems@iastate.edu.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s11920-015-0588-7

PMID

25980506

Abstract

Exposure to both human-caused and natural disasters is associated with a number of postevent reactions in youth including the experience of symptoms of several mental disorders. There is wide variability in these responses, with some youth having very intense exposure to the disaster and yet showing resilience or even personal growth, while others with low exposure sometimes show intensely negative reactions. Research findings are reviewed in this article to identify biological correlates of risk and resilience focusing on potential genetic, neurobiological, and physiological factors linked to the reactions of children exposed to disasters. A bio-ecological model is presented to couch this review of biological correlates of disaster exposure. The model predicts susceptibility to negative reactions after disaster exposure, and the biological correlates of disaster reactions can be understood in terms of this susceptibility as it relates to biological markers of the fear system.

Language: en