From the Brown University press release:<\/p>\n
What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger — that claim is so universally accepted that it’s a common truism in contexts from everyday conversations to Top 40 pop charts.<\/p>\n
But new research led by a team of Brown University researchers finds that this is false.<\/p>\n
In fact, the research suggests the opposite is true: Past stressors sensitize people to future traumas<\/strong>, thereby increasing their chances of developing a mental health disorder.<\/p>\n
“We hope that this research will spur interest in the face of the increasing number of natural disasters per year — a major consequence of climate change — such as the devastating earthquake that affected Chile and neighboring countries,” said Cristina Fernandez, a psychiatric epidemiologist and the study’s lead author. “The immediate global impacts of these catastrophic events on disease, death and the economy are largely well-recognized. Unfortunately, despite a high disease burden, mental illness has thus far not achieved commensurate visibility, policy attention or funding.”<\/p>\n
The study, published in the\u00a0British Journal of Psychiatry<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0on Thursday, June 11, was a collaborative effort led by scientists at Brown and the University of Concepci\u00f3n in central Chile.<\/p>\n
The team examined 1,160 Chileans in 2003 and 2011 — both before and after the sixth-most-powerful earthquake on record and subsequent tsunami struck their country in 2010. When the study began in 2003, none of the participants had a history of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or major depressive disorder (MDD). After the 2010 earthquake, 9.1% of the survivors were diagnosed with PTSD and 14.4% with MDD\u00ad.<\/p>\n
The risk of developing these disorders was particularly high among individuals who experienced multiple pre-disaster stressors, such as serious illness or injury, death of a loved one, divorce, unemployment or financial struggles, legal troubles or loss of a valuable possession. To be at increased risk for post-disaster PTSD (relative to those with zero stressors), individuals had to have crossed a “severity threshold” of four or more pre-disaster stressors.<\/p>\n
MDD displayed a slightly different pattern: Every pre-disaster stressor — even a single stressor — increased a person’s risk of developing post-disaster MDD, and each additional stressor further increased the risk.<\/strong><\/p>\n
The researchers say that overall, both findings suggest that the Chilean disaster survivors who had experienced multiple stressors and traumas were at a greater risk of developing a post-disaster mental health disorder<\/strong> compared to those who had experienced few or no prior stressors.<\/p>\n
“Unfortunately, the same may well hold true with COVID-19,” said Stephen Buka, a professor of epidemiology at Brown’s School of Public Health and senior author of the paper. “We’re already witnessing how black and Latino Americans are experiencing higher rates of [COVID-19] infections and fatalities. All evidence suggests that disadvantaged groups, who frequently have higher levels of prior life stresses — such as limited finances and job instability — will be most likely to suffer the most from serious mental health conditions following the pandemic.”<\/p>\n
The team hopes its research will help other countries understand the importance of accessible mental health care<\/strong>.<\/p>\n
“Personal and national mental health preparedness kits, such as the ones utilized in Chile, help mitigate the negative effects of disasters and can serve as a model for other countries,” said Benjamin Vicente, a principal investigator of the study from the University of Concepci\u00f3n. “Along with strict building codes, [Chile] has a national health care service, which includes integrated primary and mental health care centers, most of which have trained personnel to provide disaster coping strategies when needed.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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