Citation

Thielman SB. Psychiatr. Ann. 2004; 34(8): 644-649.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2004, Healio)

DOI

10.3928/0048-5713-20040801-19

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The Nairobi bombing highlights the complexities of providing psychiatric care to traumatized people in an overseas setting. The fact that the victims of the bombing were both Americans and Kenyans created special problems in terms of the delivery of care but also provided an opportunity for two very different cultures to interact with each other at the doctor-patient level, peer-to-peer level (for the survivors), and professional level (for the providers). The persistence of symptoms among both American and Kenyan survivors suggests both the intensity of exposure to a terrorist event and the intensity of disruption of the lives of the survivors may have contributed to the chronicity of the symptoms we observed. Clearly, additional study of the response to trauma in non-Western settings will be helpful to understanding the nature of post-trauma psychological reactions.

Language: en

Keywords

human; psychotherapy; disaster; education program; scoring system; suicide attempt; posttraumatic stress disorder; patient education; review; psychological aspect; psychiatrist; distress syndrome; rating scale; psychologic assessment; panic; Kenya; terrorism; psychosocial care; laceration; developing country; mental health center; outpatient department; acute stress disorder; directive counseling; eye injury