Post-traumatic stress may linger for tsunami victims

Mental health experts said that treating the survivors will be tricky because of the differences in beliefs and cultures.

By ALISA TANG
The Associated Press

BANGKOK , Thailand, Feb. 2 -- As many as nine out of 10 people affected by the Indian Ocean tsunami may suffer from post-trauma stress and other emotional troubles for years because of the disaster, experts said Wednesday.

More than 200 mental health experts from about a dozen countries including India, Sri Lanka, the United States and Australia convened in Bangkok to discuss how to best treat the millions of tsunami survivors.

"We can expect that between 50 percent and 90 percent of the population will experience symptoms such as post-traumatic stress disorder and depression, which, if they are not treated, can last for several years," said Jonathan Davidson, director of the anxiety and traumatic stress program at Duke University in the United States.

Recovery cannot take place unless the problems are recognized and treated appropriately, he said. The Dec. 26 tragedy killed at least 158,000 people in 11 nations and left hundreds of thousands homeless.

Sensitivity to local cultures is a crucial element in providing post-traumatic care, said Alexander McFarlane, head of the psychiatry department at the University of Adelaide in Australia.

Mental health counseling as a form of modern medical treatment, standard practice in the West, is not widely recognized or accepted by many Asian people.

"Often there are very different beliefs within communities about the nature of human suffering. If you don't deliver your health care in a way that matches those beliefs, the offered assistance will not be taken up," said Alexander McFarlane, head of the psychiatry department at the University of Adelaide in Australia.

Some counseling in Asia has been carried out in a religious context. In Thailand, teams of Buddhist monks trained in psychology have been doing outreach work in tsunami-affected areas.

Nearly 5,400 Thais and foreign tourists died in the disaster, with about 50,000 Thai villagers in all affected along a 400-kilometer (250-mile) stretch of coastline on the Andaman Sea, said Somchai Chakrabhand, director general of the Thai health ministry's department of mental health.

He said about 50 percent have had normal stress and anxiety reactions, while another 30 percent cannot sleep or look at the sea. Another 20 percent with severe anxiety show symptoms such as an obsession with waiting for the return of their loved one.

There has been one known suicide: a bar hostess in Phuket whose boyfriend died in the tsunami, Somchai said.

Initiatives in Thailand include 100 mental health teams, about 400-500 experts in all dispatched to the affected area. They have counseled about 10,000 people so far.

The organizers of Wednesday's meeting included the U.S. pharmaceutical company Pfizer and Thailand's Public Health Ministry.

Story produced by
Jimmy Kunkel