A preliminary study of psychological aftereffects of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) caused by earthquake: The Ahmedabad experience

Abstract

The present study is a preliminary study intended to investigate a various psychological symptoms related to post-traumatic stress caused by an earthquake of severe magnitude. The main objective of this study was to investigate psychological symptoms, which appeared in earthquake-affected people s behavior. Because this study was a preliminary study, so, no hypothesis was tested in this case. Another objective of this study is to collect information about psychological symptoms that may be used in developing a psychometric tool to measure Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (Earthquake-specific). This study was conducted on a small sample of 54 people (Males = 34, Females = 20), selected by incidental sampling method. The age range of the sample varies from 18 to 62 yrs (average age = approximately 35 yrs.). The sample includes students, professionals, employees of educational institution, doctors and older people, too. These people were interviewed by a semi-structured interview schedule, intended to explore their feelings after the earthquake experience. Most of the people included in this study were residents of single-storied to ten-storied buildings. Apart from interview, the findings of this study are also supported by the researcher s observation of people s verbal and non-verbal behavior, as observed during the interview process. The interviews conducted in this study varied from 10 to 30 minutes, depending upon the interviewees cooperation to the researcher. The findings of this study has identified anxiety reactions, phobic reactions, hyper-arousal, hyper vigilance and over alertness, psychosomatic disorders related to nightmares, insomnia, loss of appetite, eating disorders, high or low B.P., shivering of various body parts and hypertension, depression, and frustration and anger, as major psychological aftereffects of earthquake-induced post-traumatic stress disorder. Being a qualitative research, the researchers advise to generalize findings of this study carefully.