EARLY TRAUMATIC STRESS REACTIONS AMONG SWEDISH SURVIVORS OF THE M S ESTONIA DISASTER/

Background. This study is a three-month follow-up study in order to as sess the short-term impact of traumatic stress among 53 Swedish surviv ors of the Estonia disaster. Method. A questionnaire consisting of gen eral questions about conditions during and after the disaster and self -assessment by Post Traumatic Symptom Scale (PTSS-10) Impact of Event Scale (IES), Sense of Coherence-short version (SoC-12) and the DSM-IV list of dissociative symptoms of Acute Stress Disorder formulated as q uestions regarding individual reactions was distributed. Results. The response tate was 79.2% (n=42). The participants scored an average of 3.9 on PTSS-10, 28.5 on IES ('intrusion' and 'avoidance' subscales) an d 62.8 on SoC-12, which shows elevated levels of post-traumatic stress reactions but a normal level of sense of coherence. The reported occu rrence of dissociative symptoms during the disaster was as follows: em otional numbing in 43% of the survivors, reduction of awareness in 55% , derealisation in 67%, depersonalisation in 33%, and dissociative amn esia in 29%. Survivors scoring low in SoC scored significantly higher in both PTSS-10 and IES than those with high scores in SoC. All dissoc iative symptoms were predictive of post-traumatic reactions. Conclusio ns. This study substantiates the importance of assessing dissociative symptoms during a life-threatening event as a possible predictor for l ater post-traumatic reactions and possible PTSD. The Sense of Coherenc e Scale may be useful as an instrument to sort out survivors at risk.