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Psychological and physical morbidity in the aftermath of a cyclone

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

M. Fairley ,
Pauline Langeluddecke  and
Christopher Tennant
M. Fairley
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children, Camperdown, New South Wales, and the Professorial Psychiatric Unit, Royal North Shore Hospital, St Leonards, New South Wales, Australia
Pauline Langeluddecke
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children, Camperdown, New South Wales, and the Professorial Psychiatric Unit, Royal North Shore Hospital, St Leonards, New South Wales, Australia
Christopher Tennant*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children, Camperdown, New South Wales, and the Professorial Psychiatric Unit, Royal North Shore Hospital, St Leonards, New South Wales, Australia
*
1Address for correspondence: Professor Christopher Tennant, Professorial Psychiatric Unit, Royal North Shore Hospital, St Leonards, NSW 2065, Australia
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Synopsis

A Fijian community affected by a cyclone was compared with an unaffected but similar community. Two months after the cyclone both psychological and physical morbidity was 2–3 times greater in the affected community than in controls. By the third month morbidity had resolved to levels similar to those in the unaffected population. Brief, catastrophic stress without loss of life appears to provoke psychological and physical morbidity of relatively brief duration.

Type
Research Article
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 16 , Issue 3 , August 1986 , pp. 671 - 676
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1986

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