The long-term psychological effects of a disaster experienced in adolescence: I: The incidence and course of PTSD

Previous studies have shown that children and adolescents exposed to trauma tic experience in a disaster can suffer from high levels of post-traumatic stress. The present paper is the first a series reporting on the long-term follow-up of a group of young adults who as teenagers had survived a shippi ng disaster-the sinking of the "Jupiter'' in Greek waters-between 5 and 8 y ears previously. The general methodology of the follow-up study as a whole is described, and the incidence and long-term course of Post-Traumatic Stre ss Disorder (PTSD). It is the first study of its kind on a relatively large , representative sample of survivors, using a standardised diagnostic inter view, and comparing survivors with a community control group. Survivors of the Jupiter disaster (N = 217), and 87 young people as controls, were inter viewed using the Clinician Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS). Of the 217 survi vors, 111 (51.7 %) had developed PTSD at some time during the follow-up per iod: compared with an incidence in the control group of 3.4% (N = 87). In t he large majority of cases of PTSD in the survivors for whom time of onset was recorded, 90 % (N = 110), onset was not delayed, being within 6 months of the disaster. About a third of those survivors who developed PTSD (30 %, N = 111) recovered within a year of onset, through another third (34 %, N = 111) were still suffering from the disorder at the time of follow-up, bet ween 5 and 8 years after the disaster. Issues relating to the generalisabil ity of these findings are discussed.