Coping with the aftermath of trauma

Adequate survival behaviour is a crucial “gift of nature.” Humans have been fairly successful in reducing the threat to life. Nevertheless, crossing a street or driving a car requires increased alertness in order to survive. Natural disasters such as the recent tsunami and man-made disasters such as war, terrorist attacks, killing, robbing, sexual and physical abuse, and plane crashes show how vulnerable we are. After surviving such an event, people need basics—food, shelter, medical care, and consolation.

Community-based interventions in the wake of terrorism: the overview; the balance between awareness and fear; citizens and resilience

preface

This overview of community-based interventions in the wake of terrorism is one of the four products of Impacts EU-project: Citizens and Resilience, the balance between awareness and fear. It offers brief descriptions of best-practice community-based interventions in the context of psychosocial care following a terrorist attack.

Collective Trauma in Sri Lanka

The ethnic war in Sri Lanka has brought psychosocial problems for individuals and families. In addition, it has had a devastating effect on Sri Lankan society; we can speak of a collective trauma. It has caused regression of all development, destroying social capital, structures and institutions. It has also resultedin changes, for the worse, offundamental social processes like socialization, social norms and social networks.

Unforeseen consequences of terrorism : medically unexplained symptoms in a time of fear.

ONE YEAR later, reports related to the psychological and physiological effects of the terrorist attacks perpetrated on September 11, 2001, continue to emerge. These reports and what little is known about the long-term health effects of terrorism suggest that many people will present to their physicians with medically unexplained symptoms. These symptoms may be mistaken for organic medical diseases, but are likely to be physiological manifestations of psychological distress.

Research on the mental health effects of terrorism

The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, established a backdrop against which mental health effects of disasters, especially large-scale intentionally created disasters, assumed central stage in US public health. Methodologically sound data are required to understand the mental health effects of terrorism and must guide all postdisaster mental health activities from clinical interventions to administrative policy.

Psychological reactions to terrorist attacks : findings from the National Study of Americans' Reactions to September 11.

Abstract

CONTEXT:

The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, represent an unprecedented exposure to trauma in the United States.

OBJECTIVES:

To assess psychological symptom levels in the United States following the events of September 11 and to examine the association between postattack symptoms and a variety of indices of exposure to the events.

DESIGN:

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