Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rcrh6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T07:32:07.429Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Early Traumatic Stress Reactions among Swedish Survivors of the m/s Estonia Disaster

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Nils-Gustaf Eriksson  and
Tom Lundin
Tom Lundin
Affiliation:
National Centre for PTSD
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Background

This study is a three-month follow-up study in order to assess the short-term impact of traumatic stress among 53 Swedish survivors of the Estonia disaster.

Method

A questionnaire consisting of general questions about conditions during and after the disaster and self-assessment by Post Traumatic Symptom Scale (PTSS–10), Impact of Event Scale (IES), Sense of Coherence–short version (SoC–12), and the DSM–IV list of dissociative symptoms of Acute Stress Disorder formulated as questions regarding individual reactions was distributed.

Results

The response rate was 79.2% (n=42). The participants scored an average of 3.9 on PTSS–10, 28.5 on IES (‘intrusion’ and ‘avoidance’ subscales) and 62.8 on SoC–12, which shows elevated levels of post-traumatic stress reactions but a normal level of sense of coherence. The reported occurrence of dissociative symptoms during the disaster was as follows: emotional numbing in 43% of the survivors, reduction of awareness in 55%, derealisation in 67%, depersonalisation in 33%, and dissociative amnesia in 29%. Survivors scoring low in SoC scored significantly higher in both PTSS–10 and IES than those with high scores in SoC. All dissociative symptoms were predictive of post-traumatic reactions.

Conclusions

This study substantiates the importance of assessing dissociative symptoms during a life-threatening event as a possible predictor for later post-traumatic reactions and possible PTSD. The Sense of Coherence Scale may be useful as an instrument to sort out survivors at risk.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 169 , Issue 6 , December 1996 , pp. 713 - 716
Copyright
Copyright © 1996 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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

American Psychiatric Association (1993) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th edn) (DSM–IV) Washington, DC: APA.Google Scholar
Antonovski, A. (1979) Health, Stress and Coping. San Francisco: J&B Publishers.Google Scholar
Dixon, P., Rehling, G. & Shiwach, R. (1993) Peripheral victims of the Herald of Free Enterprise disaster. British Journal of Medical Psychology, 66, 193–202.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ersland, S., Weisaeth, L. & Sund, A. (1983) The stress upon rescuers involved in an oil rig disaster, “Alexander L. Kielland”. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 80 (suppl. 355), 38–49.Google Scholar
Hodgkinson, P. (1988a) Outreach to a nation. Community Care, (Sept.), 22–23 Google Scholar
Hodgkinson, P. (1988b) Psychological after effects of transportation disaster. Medical Science and the Law, 28, 304–309.Google Scholar
Hodgkinson, P., Joseph, S., Yule, W., et al (1993) Viewing human remains following disaster Helpful or harmful? Medical Science and the Law, 33, 197–202.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Holen, A. (1990) A long-term outcome study of survivors from a disaster. The Alexander L. Kielland disaster in perspective. Monograph, University of Oslo.Google Scholar
Horowitz, M., Wilner, N. & Alvarez, W. (1979) Impact of event scale: A measure of subjective stress. Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine, 41, 209–218.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Joseph, S. A., Brewin, C. R., Yule, W., et al (1991) Causal attributions and psychiatric symptoms in survivors of the Herald of Free Enterprise disaster. British Journal of Psychiatry, 159, 542–546.Google Scholar
Joseph, S. A., Williams, R., Yule, W. et al (1992a) Factor analysis of the Impact of Events Scale with survivors of two disasters at sea. Personality and Individual Differences, 13, 693–697.Google Scholar
Joseph, S. A., Andrews, B., Williams, R., et al (1992b) Crisis support and psychiatric symptomatology in adult survivors of the Jupiter cruise ship disaster. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 31, 63–73.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Joseph, S. A., Williams, R. & Yule, W. (1992c) Crisis support, attributional style, coping style and posttraumatic symptoms. Personality and Individual Differences, 13, 1249–1251.Google Scholar
Joseph, S. A., Brewin, C. R., Yule, W., et al (1993a) Causal attributions and posttraumatic stress in adolescents. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 34, 247–253.Google Scholar
Joseph, S. A., Hodgkinson, P., Yule, W., et al (1993b) Guilt and distress 30 months after the capsize of the Herald of Free Enterprise. Personality and Individual Differences, 14, 271–273.Google Scholar
Joseph, S. A., Yule, W., Williams, R., et al (1993c) Increased substance use in survivors of the Herald of Free Enterprise disaster. British Journal of Medical Psychology, 66, 185–191.Google Scholar
Joseph, S. A., Yule, W., Williams, R., (1994a) Case histories and shorter communications. The Herald of Free Enterprise disaster. The relationship of intrusion and avoidance to subsequent depression and anxiety. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 32, 115–117.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Joseph, S. A., Yule, W., Williams, R., et al (1994b) Correlates of posttraumatic stress at 30 months: The Herald of Free Enterprise disaster. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 32, 521–524.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Yule, W. (1989) The effects of disaster on children. Newsletter Association for Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 11, 3–6.Google Scholar
Yule, W. (1990) The effect of disaster on children. Bereavement Care, 9, 2–4 Google Scholar
Yule, W. (1992) Posttraumatic stress disorder in child survivors of shipping disasters: The sinking of the “Jupiter”. Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, 57, 200–205.Google Scholar
Yule, W., Williams, R. & Andrews, B. (1993) Crisis support in the aftermath of disaster A longitudinal perspective. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 32, 177–185.Google Scholar
Zilberg, N. J., Weiss, D. S. & Horowitz, M. J. (1982) Impact of event scale: A cross-validation study and some empirical evidence supporting a conceptual model of stress response syndromes. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 53, 407–414.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.