Mowadat H Rana, Sohail Ali, Sajid Rahim.
Psychological trauma amongst injured earthquake survivors of bagh, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan.
Pak J Med Res Jan ;47(3):66-70.

Background: The earthquake of October 2005 devastated the whole of the Northern countryside of Pakistan and rendered millions homeless and almost a quarter of million physically injured and handicapped. Objectives: To evaluate and establish baseline data of the psychosocial distress, prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and quality of life of the injured population of Bagh and compare with age and gender matched controls. Methods: A total of 258 cases and 235 controls were evaluated in this study which was designed as a cross sectional study. Using abbreviated injury scale, impact of event scale, screening instrument for traumatic stress in earthquake situations (SITSES) and quality of life-Bref (QoL), the injured were compared with age and gender matched controls. Results: Injured population had significantly higher levels of psychosocial distress on Impact of Event Scale (IES). Mean IES Score was 44 (SD±2) and SITSES Mean Score was 46, (SD±2); frequency of posttraumatic stress disorder was significantly higher (44.2%, p=0.04) and quality of life significantly poor among the injured group (QoL transformed score=144, p=0.07) as compared to uninjured controls exposed to the trauma (PTSD=29.78%, QoL transformed score=357). Conclusions: The study suggests that following a natural disaster the injured sufferers are at a higher risk of developing psychosocial consequences and posttraumatic stress disorder and have a poorer quality of life as compared to their uninjured survivors.

PakMediNet -Pakistan's largest Database of Pakistani Medical Journals - http://www.pakmedinet.com