Understanding the Mental Health Effects of Indirect Exposure to Mass Trauma ...
Author Affiliations: Department of Psychiatry, College of Physicians and Surgeons (Drs Neria and Sullivan) and Department of Epidemiology, Mailman School of Public Health (Dr Neria), Columbia University, New York City, New York; and Divisions of Clinical Therapeutics (Dr Neria) and Molecular Imaging and Neuropathology (Dr Sullivan), New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York City.PTSD is unique among psychiatric disorders because it requires exposure and fearful response to traumatic events as the proximate precipitants of the syndrome. The clinical presentation of PTSD includes a diverse array of distressing and disabling ongoing symptoms in the realms of reexperiencing phenomena (eg, nightmares), hyperarousal (eg, startle response), avoidance of reminders of the exposure, and general affective numbing. Yet community surveys have consistently demonstrated that most adults exhibit resilience following exposure to trauma, even among those who develop symptoms consistent with PTSD in the immediate aftermath, with many recovering over time without clinical intervention. A significant minority, however, will develop PTSD, which is the posttrauma clinical trajectory associated with a considerable health burden, including psychiatric comorbidities, severe psychosocial dysfunction, and increased rates of suicidal behaviors.
The neuroscience model of pavlovian fear conditioning and extinction has been proposed to have direct relevance to PTSD pathophysiology. This heuristic model explains how fear learning may be involved in the emergence of PTSD symptoms and how the persistence of symptoms over time potentially involves a failure of basic extinction processes of learned fear memory. Moreover, increased efforts to develop and test extinction-based psychotherapeutic approaches for treatment of PTSD, such as prolonged exposure (a type of therapy that encourages reexperience of trauma through recalling and reengaging with it), have proven these interventions to be efficacious for many, and these approaches have become first-line interventions for PTSD. However, the fear-learning and extinction model has yet to be fully applied for understanding the trajectories of PTSD over time among populations indirectly exposed to mass trauma, disasters, and terrorism.
Natural Disasters Ptsd - News
Dr Pratap Sharan, professor of psychiatry at AIIMS added, "In India people do not recognize PTSD as a treatable disorder. They consider it to be a natural outcome of any tragedy." He said that victims or witnesses of a mass tragedy, like a bomb blast,
In the United States, 15% of women and 19% of men have reported lifetime exposure to natural disasters alone. 1 Since the advent of 24-hour television news, exposure to mass violence and natural disasters through the media is even more widespread.
Some traumatic events occur nationally or in large communities like natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina or other hurricanes -- the Japan tsunami was a good example of how natural disasters can become national disasters.
Plus, some employees who go through natural disasters may be able to point to a doctor-diagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). That would trigger FMLA leave as well as potential obligations under the ADA.
In the end, the largest lesson for the mental health field is that when disaster strikes, practitioners should not get in the way of natural coping. Instead of trying to provide services to the entire population, they should, after a month or so,
PTSD and Natural ... - National Network of Libraries of Medicine
Disorder post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) affects not only service members who experience traumatic events while deployed, it can also affect civilian communities, particularly in the aftermath of natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina, earthquakes Haiti and Japan, and tornadoes that tore across the southern United States.
The knowledge gained by a thorough study of PTSD among military populations has provided a great insight into the disorder in civilian communities.This webinar will discuss the effects of natural disasters have on people living in communities devastated by natural disasters, how to promote resilience and coping mechanisms.
To register, be added to the mailing list or for more information, e-mail @ DCoE.MonthlyWebinar tma.osd.
RT @: www.ptsd.va.gov is for all types of trauma: victims of assault, terrorism, natural disasters 
Watch this space for upcoming piece on natural disasters, #PTSD and coping skills 
PTSD and natural disasters...Natural Disasters Ptsd - Bookshelf
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Briefly describes the research to date on the psychological effects of natural disasters with a focus on hurricanes.