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Collective Trauma and Mental Health in Adolescents: A Retrospective Cohort Study of the Effects of Retraumatization

In the wake of the massive Canadian wildfire of May 2016 in the area of Fort McMurray Alberta, we observed increased rates of mental health problems, particularly post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), in school-aged adolescents (ages 11–19). Surprisingly, we did not see these rates decline over the...

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Autores principales: Pazderka, Hannah, Brown, Matthew R. G., Agyapong, Vincent I. O., Greenshaw, Andrew James, McDonald-Harker, Caroline Beth, Noble, Shannon, Mankowski, Monica, Lee, Bonnie, Drolet, Julie L., Omeje, Joy, Brett-MacLean, Pamela, Kitching, Deborah Terry, Silverstone, Peter H.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8267583/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34248717
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.682041
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author Pazderka, Hannah
Brown, Matthew R. G.
Agyapong, Vincent I. O.
Greenshaw, Andrew James
McDonald-Harker, Caroline Beth
Noble, Shannon
Mankowski, Monica
Lee, Bonnie
Drolet, Julie L.
Omeje, Joy
Brett-MacLean, Pamela
Kitching, Deborah Terry
Silverstone, Peter H.
author_facet Pazderka, Hannah
Brown, Matthew R. G.
Agyapong, Vincent I. O.
Greenshaw, Andrew James
McDonald-Harker, Caroline Beth
Noble, Shannon
Mankowski, Monica
Lee, Bonnie
Drolet, Julie L.
Omeje, Joy
Brett-MacLean, Pamela
Kitching, Deborah Terry
Silverstone, Peter H.
author_sort Pazderka, Hannah
collection PubMed
description In the wake of the massive Canadian wildfire of May 2016 in the area of Fort McMurray Alberta, we observed increased rates of mental health problems, particularly post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), in school-aged adolescents (ages 11–19). Surprisingly, we did not see these rates decline over the 3.5-year follow-up period. Additionally, our research suggested that the impact of this mass incident resulted in other unanticipated effects, including the finding that children who were not present for and relatively unaffected by the wildfire showed a similar PTSD symptom profile to children more directly involved, suggesting some degree of spillover or stress contagion. A potential explanation for these high rates in individuals who were not present could be undiagnosed retraumatization in some of the students. To investigate this possibility, we compared two groups of students: those who reported the wildfire as their most significant trauma (n = 740) and those who had their most significant trauma prior to the wildfire (n = 295). Those with significant pre-existing trauma had significantly higher rates of both depression and PTSD symptoms, although, unexpectedly the groups exhibited no differences in anxiety level. Taken together, this evidence suggests retraumatization is both longer-lasting and more widespread than might be predicted on a case-by-case basis, suggesting the need to reconceptualize the role of past trauma history in present symptomatology. These findings point to the need to recognize that crises instigated by natural disasters are mass phenomena which expose those involved to numerous unanticipated risks. New trauma-informed treatment approaches are required that incorporate sensitivity to the collective impact of mass crises, and recognize the risk of poorer long-term mental health outcomes for those who experienced trauma in the past.
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spelling pubmed-82675832021-07-10 Collective Trauma and Mental Health in Adolescents: A Retrospective Cohort Study of the Effects of Retraumatization Pazderka, Hannah Brown, Matthew R. G. Agyapong, Vincent I. O. Greenshaw, Andrew James McDonald-Harker, Caroline Beth Noble, Shannon Mankowski, Monica Lee, Bonnie Drolet, Julie L. Omeje, Joy Brett-MacLean, Pamela Kitching, Deborah Terry Silverstone, Peter H. Front Psychiatry Psychiatry In the wake of the massive Canadian wildfire of May 2016 in the area of Fort McMurray Alberta, we observed increased rates of mental health problems, particularly post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), in school-aged adolescents (ages 11–19). Surprisingly, we did not see these rates decline over the 3.5-year follow-up period. Additionally, our research suggested that the impact of this mass incident resulted in other unanticipated effects, including the finding that children who were not present for and relatively unaffected by the wildfire showed a similar PTSD symptom profile to children more directly involved, suggesting some degree of spillover or stress contagion. A potential explanation for these high rates in individuals who were not present could be undiagnosed retraumatization in some of the students. To investigate this possibility, we compared two groups of students: those who reported the wildfire as their most significant trauma (n = 740) and those who had their most significant trauma prior to the wildfire (n = 295). Those with significant pre-existing trauma had significantly higher rates of both depression and PTSD symptoms, although, unexpectedly the groups exhibited no differences in anxiety level. Taken together, this evidence suggests retraumatization is both longer-lasting and more widespread than might be predicted on a case-by-case basis, suggesting the need to reconceptualize the role of past trauma history in present symptomatology. These findings point to the need to recognize that crises instigated by natural disasters are mass phenomena which expose those involved to numerous unanticipated risks. New trauma-informed treatment approaches are required that incorporate sensitivity to the collective impact of mass crises, and recognize the risk of poorer long-term mental health outcomes for those who experienced trauma in the past. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-06-25 /pmc/articles/PMC8267583/ /pubmed/34248717 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.682041 Text en Copyright © 2021 Pazderka, Brown, Agyapong, Greenshaw, McDonald-Harker, Noble, Mankowski, Lee, Drolet, Omeje, Brett-MacLean, Kitching and Silverstone. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychiatry
Pazderka, Hannah
Brown, Matthew R. G.
Agyapong, Vincent I. O.
Greenshaw, Andrew James
McDonald-Harker, Caroline Beth
Noble, Shannon
Mankowski, Monica
Lee, Bonnie
Drolet, Julie L.
Omeje, Joy
Brett-MacLean, Pamela
Kitching, Deborah Terry
Silverstone, Peter H.
Collective Trauma and Mental Health in Adolescents: A Retrospective Cohort Study of the Effects of Retraumatization
title Collective Trauma and Mental Health in Adolescents: A Retrospective Cohort Study of the Effects of Retraumatization
title_full Collective Trauma and Mental Health in Adolescents: A Retrospective Cohort Study of the Effects of Retraumatization
title_fullStr Collective Trauma and Mental Health in Adolescents: A Retrospective Cohort Study of the Effects of Retraumatization
title_full_unstemmed Collective Trauma and Mental Health in Adolescents: A Retrospective Cohort Study of the Effects of Retraumatization
title_short Collective Trauma and Mental Health in Adolescents: A Retrospective Cohort Study of the Effects of Retraumatization
title_sort collective trauma and mental health in adolescents: a retrospective cohort study of the effects of retraumatization
topic Psychiatry
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8267583/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34248717
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.682041
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