Citation

Boden JM, Fergusson DM, Horwood LJ, Mulder RT. BJPsych Open 2015; 1(1): 81-86.

Affiliation

Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Otago, Christchurch School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Christchurch, New Zealand.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, Royal College of Psychiatrists)

DOI

10.1192/bjpo.bp.115.001180

PMID

27703727

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Few studies have examined the contribution of specific disaster-related experiences to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. AIMS: To examine the roles of peri-traumatic stress and distress due to lingering disaster-related disruption in explaining linkages between disaster exposure and PTSD symptoms among a cohort exposed to the 2010-2011 Canterbury (New Zealand) earthquakes.

METHOD: Structural equation models were fitted to data obtained from the Christchurch Health and Development Study at age 35 (n=495), 20-24 months following the onset of the disaster. Measures included: earthquake exposure, peri-traumatic stress, disruption distress and PTSD symptoms.

RESULTS: The associations between earthquake exposure and PTSD symptoms were explained largely by the experience of peri-traumatic stress during the earthquakes (β=0.189, P<0.0001) and disruption distress following the earthquakes (β=0.105, P<0.0001).

CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest the importance of minimising post-event disruption distress following exposure to a natural disaster. DECLARATION OF INTEREST: None. COPYRIGHT AND USAGE: © The Royal College of Psychiatrists 2015. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Non-Commercial, No Derivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) licence.

Language: en