Health and Medical
Sciencecentric. Hurricane Ike triggers Dartmouth's work for the NCDMHR Oct 2008 - Dartmouth researchers with the National Centre for Disaster Mental Health Research (NCDMHR) are preparing to visit the Galveston, Texas area on their first field mission in early November to study the impact of Hurricane Ike, which hit in late September.
Lynn Goldman and Chrstine Coussens (2007) Environmental Public Health Impacts of Disasters: Hurricane Katrina, Workshop Summary. ISBN: 978-0-309-10500-2. 100 pages. Executive summary may be downloaded at no cost from
ttp://www.nap.edu/catalog/11840.html
"The workshop did not consist of lessons learned during the response, but rather was an examination of the science needed to finform the ongoing response to disasters of this magnitude."
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Peter Steinglass, Ellen Gerrity (1990) Natural Disasters and Post-traumatic Stress Disorder Short-Term versus Long-Term Recovery in Two Disaster-Affected Communities. Journal of Applied Social Psychology 20 (21) , 1746–1765 doi:10.1111/j.1559-1816.1990.tb01509.x
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in adults following disaster-precipitated family relocation was investigated in a longitudinal study of family and individual response to natural disasters. Adult participants included 78 women and 77 men in two communities. Psychosocial adjustment was measured at two points in time: at 4 months and 16 months after the disaster. Instruments used for assessing stress-related symptomatology included the Horowitz Impact of Event Scale (HIES) and the Diagnostic Interview Schedule (DIS). Major findings included: (a) levels of short-term stress symptomatology and diagnosable PTSD were substantial in both communities; (b) significant decrements in these levels occurred by 16-months postdisaster;(c) substantial gender differences (greater levels for women) were apparent in both short- and long-term PTSD response rates; and (d) patterns and levels of PTSD symptoms were different in the two communities. Findings have implications for the interpretation of PTSD within the context of family- and community-level variables.
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