Systematic Review on Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Among Survivors of the Wenchuan Earthquake

Abstract

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) widely occurs among victims or witness of disasters. With flashbacks, hyperarousal, and avoidance being the typical symptoms, PTSD became a focus of psychological research. The earthquake in Wenchuan, China, on May 12, 2008, was without precedent in magnitude and aftermath and caused huge damage, which drew scientists' attention to mental health of the survivors. We conducted a systematic overview by collecting published articles from the PubMed database and classifying them into five points: epidemiology, neuropathology, biochemistry, genetics and epigenetics, and treatment. The large body of research during the past 6 years showed that adolescents and adults were among the most studied populations with high prevalence rates for PTSD. Genomic and transcriptomic studies focusing on gene × environment studies as well as epigenetics are still rare, although a few available data showed great potential to better understand the pathophysiology of PTSD as multifactorial disease. Phytotherapy with Chinese herbs and acupuncture are rarely reported as of yet, although the first published data indicated promising therapy effects. Future studies should focus on the following points: (1) The affected populations under observation should be better defined concerning individual risk factor, time of observation, spatial movement, and individual disease courses of patients. (2) The role of social support for prevalence rates of PTSD should be observed in more detail. (3) Efficacy and safety of Chinese medicine should be studied to find potential interventions and effective treatments of PTSD.

Posttraumatic stress and depressive symptoms in children after the Wenchuan earthquake

“…First, the high degree of trauma exposure predicted high levels of PTSD symptoms but not depressive symptoms. The dose-effect relationship of trauma exposure to PTSD symptoms has been supported by many previous studies (Hong & Efferth, 2016). However, trauma exposure had no statistically significant effect on depressive symptoms in our study.…”

“…Children and adolescents are easily exposed to second-hand trauma (TV and nonprofessional psychological first aid), which has been shown to increase the risk of PTSD among adolescents (Yeung et al, 2016). In contrast, a systematic review of PTSD reactions after the Wenchuan earthquake showed that children and adolescents had a lower prevalence of PTSD and that their symptoms lasted for a much shorter period than did those of adults (Hong & Efferth, 2016). These findings could influence the different relationships between PTSD and depression in children and adults.…”

Sleep problems six-months after continuous earthquake activity in a Greek island

“…However, the long lasting effects on sleep have been investigated by rather few longitudinal studies. 6,14,13,23 In this context, various predictive factors of sleep disturbances have been investigated, such as proximity to the earthquake's epicenter, extent of material and human losses, socio-demographic characteristics, and coexisting psychopathology (anxiety, depression, and PTSD symptoms in particular).…”

“…12 Immediate and short-term post-trauma sleep problems have been often reported in the literature but only a few studies have investigated sleep complaints several months following a natural disaster. 13,14 In the present study we assessed sleep problems, insomnia in particular, in the affected population of Cephalonia, retrospectively one month before and 6 months after the earthquake, and investigated their correlation with depression, anxiety and PTSD symptoms.…”

Identification of NF-κB as Determinant of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Its Inhibition by the Chinese Herbal Remedy Free and Easy Wanderer

“…It has been calculated that life time prevalence of PTSD in adults is 7.8%, while women have higher risk than men (20.4 vs. 8.2%) despite experiencing fewer traumas (Kessler et al, 2005; Ditlevsen and Elklit, 2012). Pre-trauma factors, such as lower socioeconomic status, parental neglect and poor social support increase the risk (Hong and Efferth, 2015). In addition, more and more studies reported the correlation between PTSD and other physiological diseases, such as diabetes (Agyemang et al, 2012), cancer (Abbey et al, 2015) and cardiovascular diseases (Boscarino, 2008), or psychiatric diseases, such as depression and anxiety (Farr et al, 2014).…”