Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T08:42:53.692Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Cyclone Tracy and Darwin Evacuees: On the Restoration of the Species

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Gordon Parker
Gordon Parker*
Affiliation:
School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, Kensington, NSW, 2033, Australia
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

A validated objective measure of the state of psychological function was used to determine the incidence and course of psychological dysfunction in a group of evacuees from Darwin following disaster caused by a cyclone (Cyclone Tracy). While psychological dysfunction was increased initially (58 per cent) and at ten weeks (41 per cent), it had returned to an Australian general population control level (22 per cent) at 14 months.

Factors influencing psychological dysfunction were examined, and it is suggested that the sample faced two different stressors at differing times. Initial psychiatric morbidity was most clearly associated with the experience of thinking that one might die or be seriously injured and therefore conceptualized as a ‘mortality stressor’. Psychiatric morbidity at ten weeks appeared to be most closely associated with what has been conceptualized as a ‘relocation stressor’.

Reasons why psychiatric morbidity decreased to a general population control level are discussed.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 130 , Issue 6 , June 1977 , pp. 548 - 555
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1977 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Adler, A. (1943) Neuropsychiatric complications in victims of Boston's Cocoanut Grove Disaster. Journal of the American Medical Association, 123, 1098–101.Google Scholar
2 Andrews, G., Tennant, C., Schonell, M., See, G., Joyce, K., Abernethy, K. & Cantori, G. (1975) An Approach to Measuring the Health of an Urban Population. Human Communications Laboratory, The University of New South Wales.Google Scholar
3 Eastwell, H. (1976) The Darwin Factor: psychological sequelae of the 1974 cyclone. In press.Google Scholar
4 Forrester, J. W. (1969) Urban Dynamics, Massachusetts: M.I.T. Press.Google Scholar
5 Glass, A. J. (1959) Psychological aspects of disaster. Journal of the American Medical Association, 171, 188–91.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
6 Goldberg, D. P. (1972) The Detection of Psychiatric Illness. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
7 Health Journal of the Australian Department of Health (1975) Special Darwin Issue, 25, 4.Google Scholar
8 Kinston, W. & Rosser, R. (1974) Disaster: effects on mental and physical state. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 18, 437–56.Google Scholar
9 Leopold, R. L. & Dillon, H. (1963) Psychoanatomy of a disaster: a long-term study of post-traumatic neuroses in survivors of a marine explosion. American Journal of Psychiatry, 119, 913–21.Google Scholar
10 Maddison, D. & Walker, W. L. (1967) Factors affecting the outcome of conjugal bereavement. British Journal of Psychiatry, 113, 1057–67.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
11 Masserman, J. H. (1953) Faith and delusion in psychotherapy. American Journal of Psychiatry, 110, 324–33.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
12 Park, R. E. (1928) Human migration and the marginal man. American Journal of Sociology, 33, 881–93.Google Scholar
13 Parker, G. & Brotchie, H. (1977) Psychological disturbance in a general practice setting. Accepted for publication. Australian Family Physician. Google Scholar
14 Titchener, J. L. & Kapp, F. T. (1975) Family and character change in Buffalo Creek. Presented at American Psychiatric Association Annual Meeting, Araheim.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.