Posttraumatic stress disorder following the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake: A 10-year systematic review among highly exposed populations in China

Liang, Yiming; Cheng, Jin; Ruzek, Josef I.; Liu, Zhengkui

doi:10.1016/j.jad.2018.09.047

Cited by 82 publications

(72 citation statements)

References 59 publications

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“…The Wenchuan earthquake caused destructive damage and tremendous losses due to its high magnitude. More exposure to trauma might indicate a greater risk to an individual's life, which causes a direct threat and results in fear, thereby increasing the severity of PTSD (Liang et al, 2019). In addition, having experienced prequake trauma was significantly predictive of the recovery and resilient trajectories.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…First, few deaths and injuries occurred in the two schools we surveyed. Second, the state and the public provided excellent support and attention to victims of the Wenchuan earthquake, which might have had positive psychological impacts on these individuals (Fan et al, 2015;Liang et al, 2019). The recovery trajectory was observed in 7.5% of the present sample; this trajectory is characterized by an initial increase in symptoms over the first two years followed by a decrease in symptoms to a relatively low level.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Therefore, more children may be affected after disasters, and thus the proportion of resilient trajectories in children may be lower. Meanwhile, children also have a high degree of plasticity (Hochberg et al, 2011;Liang, Cheng, Ruzek, & Liu, 2019); therefore, they may recover faster after receiving psychological interventions and their PTSD symptoms may not last as long, which might be the reason for the higher proportion of children following the recovery trajectory and the lower proportion following the chronic trajectory. Due to the special psychological characteristics of children and insufficient evidence of PTSD trajectories among children, more research focusing on children is needed.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A total of 374,643 individuals were injured and 17,923 were recorded as missing. After the disaster, many children suffered long-lasting mental health problems, including PTSD (Guo, He, Qu, Wang, & Liu, 2017;Liang et al, 2019). To understand long-term PTSD trajectories among children, we conducted a four-year longitudinal investigation starting four months after the Wenchuan earthquake.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Trajectories of posttraumatic stress disorders among children after the Wenchuan earthquake: a four-year longitudinal study

Liang

Cheng

Zhou

et al. 2019

European Journal of Psychotraumatology

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Background: Previous research has demonstrated heterogeneous patterns of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among children following disasters. However, no clear consensus has been reached regarding the postdisaster trajectories of PTSD among children. Objective: The current study examined the trajectories of PTSD among children after exposure to the Wenchuan earthquake and explored potential predictors of distinct PTSD trajectories. Methods: A four-year longitudinal study was conducted to follow 301 children who were evaluated for PTSD symptoms following the Wenchuan earthquake. Trauma exposure and some pre-existing characteristics were measured at four months after the disaster, and PTSD symptoms were measured at 4, 16, 29, 40 and 52 months after the disaster. The trajectories were identified with Latent Growth Mixture Modelling, and the predictors were explored with multinomial logistic regression. Results: The following three latent PTSD trajectories were found among children: resilient (74.9%), relapsing (17.7%) and recovery (7.5%). Trauma exposure was more likely to be related to a more severe trajectory of PTSD, having experienced prequake trauma was more likely to be related to the recovery trajectory and school 2 was more likely to be related to the relapsing trajectory. Conclusion: These findings provide novel insights into children's postdisaster response patterns. Individual heterogeneity existed in posttraumatic reactions. This longer-term longitudinal study captured more detailed and accurate information about the development of these trajectories. Trauma exposure and previous traumatic experience were linked to malignant development of PTSD.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Trajectories of posttraumatic stress disorders among children after the Wenchuan earthquake: a four-year longitudinal study

Liang

Cheng

Zhou

et al. 2019

European Journal of Psychotraumatology

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“…Social support has been associated with better post-disaster mental health condition in the long run (Pfefferbaum et al, 2015;Liang et al, 2019;Thoresen et al, 2019), and may enhance individual feeling of safety and promote social sharing of emotions and cognitions related to traumatic events, which helps survivors relieve post-disaster psychopathologies (Zhen et al, 2018). By talking to lay supporters, such as family members, friends and teachers, survivors may clarify their psychological states and come to terms with traumatic events, helping them reappraise the meaning of the disaster (Pennebaker et al, 2001), and reducing negative psychological consequences (Greenberg and Stone, 1992).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

School-based psychoeducation and storytelling: Associations with long-term mental health in adolescent survivors of the Wenchuan earthquake

Tanaka

Iso

Tsutsumi

et al. 2019

Epidemiol Psychiatr Sci

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Aims We explored the factors promoting long-term mental health among adolescent survivors of the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake in China. We examined the associations of their long-term mental health with disaster-related storytelling and school-based psychoeducation, and of school-based psychoeducation with disaster-related storytelling. Methods A secondary school-based cross-sectional survey was conducted 6 years after the disaster. Participants with traumatic experiences such as injury, loss, witnessing someone's death/injury and home destruction (N = 1028, mean age 15, standard deviation 1.38, male 51%) were eligible. Mental health/disaster education (MHE/DE) was defined as taking one or more lessons in MHE and/or DE at school since the earthquake. Experiences of storytelling about the disaster involved expressing distressing memories and feelings regarding the earthquake since the disaster happened, according to four groups: never expressed distressing memories and feelings, expressed them through writing/drawing, expressed them through talking to lay supporters and expressed them through talking to health professionals. Analysis of covariance was used to compare mean scores on five selected subscales of the Symptom Checklist-90 (SCL-90), the Athens Insomnia Scale (AIS) and the Psychotic-Like Experiences (PLEs) scale among the four storytelling groups. Linear regression analysis was used to identify the relationships between MHE/DE and current mental health as measured by the SCL-90, AIS and PLEs. The relationship between education and storytelling was probed by χ2 test. Results The talked-to-lay-supporters group showed better mental health on the SCL-90 (p ⩽ 0.001), AIS (p < 0.001) and PLEs (p = 0.004), while the consulted-health-professionals group showed worse mental health on the three dimensions of the SCL-90: depression (p = 0.05), anxiety (p = 0.02) and fear (p = 0.04), and on PLEs (p = 0.02) compared with the never-expressed group. MHE and DE were inversely associated with SCL-90, AIS and PLE scores. Participants who received these forms of education talked about their disaster experiences to lay supporters more than those who did not. Conclusions MHE and DE at school may promote adolescents’ mental health after a disaster. Experience of storytelling about the disaster to lay supporters may be helpful for long-term psychological recovery, and may be a potential mediating factor for school-based education and better mental health. Because of the cross-sectional nature of this study, causality cannot be inferred; therefore, further prospective intervention studies are needed to elucidate the effect of these factors on adolescent survivors’ mental health.

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Associations between Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms, Creative Thinking, and Trait Resilience among Chinese Adolescents Exposed to the Lushan Earthquake

Liang

Zheng

Cheng

et al. 2020

Journal of Creative Behavior

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Trauma has been shown to have a detrimental impact on individuals; however, it may also provide an opportunity for individual growth. The present study investigated the relationship between post‐traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) and creative thinking and examined the role of trait resilience as a potential moderator of the relationship. A longitudinal study was conducted 1.5 months after the Lushan earthquake (T1: June 2013), and 102 students who experienced the earthquake were surveyed. PTSS were measured at T1 (June 2013), trait resilience was measured at T2 (October 2013), and creative thinking was measured at T3 (April 2014). PTSS and trait resilience were measured by self‐reported questionnaires, and creative thinking was assessed by the Practical Creative Thinking Test. Overall, PTSS were negatively associated with creative thinking, and trait resilience moderated this relationship. Further analysis revealed a significant positive relationship between PTSS and creative thinking for individuals with high trait resilience. The current study highlights the moderating effect of trait resilience on the relationship between PTSS and creative thinking and identifies a positive association between PTSS and creative thinking among early adolescents with high trait resilience. Our findings suggest that increased creative thinking may be a manifestation of post‐traumatic growth in the cognitive process.

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Posttraumatic stress disorder following the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake: A 10-year systematic review among highly exposed populations in China

Cited by 82 publications

References 59 publications

Trajectories of posttraumatic stress disorders among children after the Wenchuan earthquake: a four-year longitudinal study

Trajectories of posttraumatic stress disorders among children after the Wenchuan earthquake: a four-year longitudinal study

School-based psychoeducation and storytelling: Associations with long-term mental health in adolescent survivors of the Wenchuan earthquake

Associations between Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms, Creative Thinking, and Trait Resilience among Chinese Adolescents Exposed to the Lushan Earthquake

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