Citation

Taku K, Prioleau PG, Anderson DS, Takeguchi Y, Sekine H, Maeda M, Yabe H, Yanagisawa RT, Katz CL. Psychiatr. Q. 2018; 89(4): 1007-1018.

Affiliation

Medical Education, and Systems Design and Global Health, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, One Gustave L. Levy Place, Box, New York, NY, 1257, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s11126-018-9601-8

PMID

30145770

Abstract

Medical students often become involved as post-disaster emergency responders despite incomplete training, and in doing so may suppress their immediate experiences as victims and survivors. This experience, however, may lead them to increase their motivation to help others. We examined how cognitive and emotional reactions to disaster correlated with posttraumatic growth (PTG) in medical students in Fukushima, Japan after the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, 2011. To date, Fukushima continues to suffer from radiation concerns following the nuclear power plant meltdown. In a survey three years after the onset of a long-term disaster, with a cross-sectional research design, medical students (N = 494) reported their negative post-disaster reactions, desire to help, and demonstrations of capability, and completed the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI). We conducted hierarchical regression analyses and found that the addition of variables pertaining to negative post-disaster reactions (e.g. confusion, anger, and sadness) led to the largest increase in predictive value for PTGI scores; students reporting a past traumatic experience were also more likely to experience PTG. Our results indicate that weathering stressful disaster circumstances created opportunities for positive personal growth and reinforcement at a crucial time in medical students' professional development.

Language: en

Keywords

Disaster; Etiology/risk and protective factors; PTSD phenomenology; Posttraumatic growth; Resilience