POSTTRAUMATIC MORBIDITY IN A CIVILIAN COMMUNITY OF LITIGANTS - A FOLLOW-UP AT 3 YEARS

This paper examines post-traumatic morbidity in a community sample who had claimed compensation and been assessed 10-14 months after the Loc kerbie Disaster. At 36 months 25 residents were reassessed by clinical interview and 35 by questionnaire. A chronic pattern of morbidity was found in 56% of this sample with the most frequent diagnoses being po st traumatic stress disorder and depression, followed by other anxiety disorders. Only six cases were found to have ''recovered'' and there was only one case of delayed onset morbidity between 12 and 36 months. No unequivocal predictors of the presence of diagnosis or questionnai re scores were found.