What is Disaster Mental Health?
Disaster mental health refers to mental health services for victims, first responders, and medical personnel who experience disaster. Disaster can include a wide variety of sudden, catastrophic events that cause loss of life, such as an earthquake, a terrorist attack, or even a global pandemic.
What Conditions Are Associated With Disaster Mental Health?
Traumatic experiences during disaster can produce a variety of mental health conditions that last long after danger ends. Some of these may be related to neurological changes produced by long periods of “fight or flight.”
One of the most prominent conditions associated with disaster mental health is PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.) Once thought common only in military conflict, it is now understood PTSD can come from any intense experience of danger that provokes feelings of helplessness.
PTSD can have symptoms including flashbacks, memory loss (especially in relation to the traumatic event), anxiety, depression, difficulty sleeping, nightmares, and angry outbursts. The vast majority of PTSD sufferers are nonviolent and pose no threat to others.
Anxiety and depression are typical complications from any disaster. Both adults and children may feel guilty, believing they “should have done more.” Emotional flashbacks in which the sufferer re-experiences negative emotions without “seeing” or “hearing” the event, are common.
Disaster Mental Health Recovery and Lifestyle Changes
Disaster mental health treatment often includes a combination of medication and therapy. Medication focuses on reducing symptoms of anxiety and depression. Therapy can be in a group or one-on-one setting. Its primary goal is to help a sufferer process trauma.
One of the biggest challenges in disaster mental health care is the difficulty sufferers face verbalizing their experiences. Processing the emotions that come from trauma help reduce their effect on a person’s life. Novel approaches such as art therapy help many individuals express trauma in a way that helps. Techniques like journaling may also be used.
Disaster mental health patients need to identify psychological triggers in their environment. These triggers can cause them to re-experience the emotions or sensations of a past trauma. At first, recognizing and avoiding such triggers is advisable. With professional help, it’s possible to overcome the negative associations of triggers in a controlled environment.
Disaster Mental Health Research
Disaster mental health has been a prominent concern in psychology for decades. As researchers have uncovered effects of trauma on the brain, it has become clear profound neurological changes can occur during disaster even if one is not physically harmed.
Disaster mental health research focuses on two main areas: Reduction and treatment. Reduction aims to equip at-risk populations, like police and EMTs, with coping strategies to manage trauma. Treatment focuses on the neurobiology of trauma, creating better clinical resources for disaster mental health.
Why is Further Disaster Mental Health Research Necessary?
Millions of people all around the world are affected by mental health issues arising from disaster. The lessons of disaster mental health apply to everything from the COVID-19 outbreak to individual experiences of sexual assault or other criminal violence. With that in mind, all disaster mental health research has potential to help a broad spectrum of the population.
Disaster Mental Health Clinical Trials
This list contains all disaster mental health clinical trials on record at ClinicalTrials.gov. To feature a clinical trial on our site, contact us.
- Characterization of Nociception Phenotype in Individuals With Intellectual Disabilityon September 5, 2025 at 4:00 am
Conditions: Intellectual Disability Interventions: Device: TSA2 Thermosensory Stimulator Sponsors: National Institutes of Health Clinical Center (CC) Recruiting
- The Recovery in Stroke Using PAP Studyon September 5, 2025 at 4:00 am
Conditions: Ischemic Stroke; Obstructive Sleep Apnea Interventions: Device: PAP; Behavioral: HLE Sponsors: Yale University; Hartford HealthCare; National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR); American Academy of Sleep Medicine Foundation (AASM) Recruiting
- Sleep Enhancement for Older Adults Living With Memory Loss And Their Care Partnerson September 5, 2025 at 4:00 am
Conditions: Sleep Disturbance; Dementia Interventions: Behavioral: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia Sponsors: Emory University; National Institute on Aging (NIA) Recruiting
- Transcranial Pulse Stimulation for Alzheimer's Diseaseon September 5, 2025 at 4:00 am
Conditions: Alzheimer Dementia (AD) Interventions: Device: transcranial pulse stimulation (TPS); Device: transcranial pulse stimulation (TPS-Sham) Sponsors: Chinese University of Hong Kong; Asia Pacific Institute of Healthy ageing; Associated medical supplies company limited; Dongguan University of Technology; SuZhou Engin Bio-medical Electronics.Co.Ltd. Recruiting
- Screening for Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) and Cognitive Function in Individuals With History of Strokeon September 5, 2025 at 4:00 am
Conditions: Stroke; Brain Disease; Vascular Diseases; Cerebrovascular Disorder Sponsors: National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) Recruiting
- Genomic Sequencing and Personalized Treatment for Birth Defects in Neonatal Intensive Care Unitson September 5, 2025 at 4:00 am
Conditions: Genetic Disease; Multiple Malformation; Congenital Malformation Sponsors: Children's Hospital of Fudan University; Xiamen Children's Hospital, Fujian of China; Maternal and Child Health Hospital of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region; Guangzhou Women and Children's Medical Center; Second Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University; Maternal and Child Health Hospital of Hubei Province; The Maternal & Children Health Hospital of Dehong, Yunnan of China Recruiting
- Performance and Safety of LightForce® Therapy Lasers on Shoulder Soft Tissue Inflammation Pain Reductionon September 4, 2025 at 4:00 am
Conditions: Shoulder Pain; Shoulder Impingement Syndrome; Rotator Cuff Tendinitis Interventions: Device: Sham Laser therapy; Device: Laser therapy; Other: physiotherapy/exercise protocol Sponsors: DJO UK Ltd Recruiting
- Managing Pregnancy Pain With Baduanjin Exerciseon September 4, 2025 at 4:00 am
Conditions: Pregnancy-related Low Back and Pelvic Pain; Pregnancy Interventions: Behavioral: Prenatal Baduanjin Exercise Program Sponsors: Peking Union Medical College Hospital Recruiting
- Evaluating Postoperative Pain and Antibacterial Effect of Ultrasonic and 980 nm Diode Laser Combinationon September 4, 2025 at 4:00 am
Conditions: Post Operative Pain Interventions: Device: diode laser; Other: conventional irrigation; Device: Diode laser; Device: Ultrasonic Sponsors: Al-Azhar University Recruiting
- Performance and Safety of LightForce® Therapy Lasers on Lateral Ankle Sprainon September 4, 2025 at 4:00 am
Conditions: Ankle Sprain 1St Degree; Ankle Sprain 2Nd Degree; Acute Pain Interventions: Device: Sham Laser therapy; Device: Laser therapy; Other: RICE and physiotherapy/exercise protocol Sponsors: DJO UK Ltd Recruiting
- A Study of Oral Atogepant Tablets to Assess Adverse Events and Change in Disease Activity To Prevent Migraine in Participants Aged 12 to 17 Yearson September 4, 2025 at 4:00 am
Conditions: Chronic Migraine Interventions: Drug: Atogepant; Drug: Placebo for Atogepant Sponsors: AbbVie Recruiting
- Defining the Brain Phenotype of Children With Williams Syndromeon September 4, 2025 at 4:00 am
Conditions: Williams Syndrome; Duplication Sponsors: National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Recruiting
Conclusion
With more people experiencing disaster, stigma around seeking disaster mental health treatment is beginning to fade. Disaster mental health clinical resources will depend on active clinical trials that uncover further information about the brain’s trauma response. Further medical research may help millions of people reclaim their sense of stability.
Sources
- https://www.phe.gov/Preparedness/planning/abc/Pages/disaster-behavioral.aspx
- https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/325578
- https://www.rainn.org/articles/flashbacks
- https://emergency.cdc.gov/coping/index.asp
- https://www.mhanational.org/coping-disaster
- https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/what-are-treatments-for-posttraumatic-stress-disorder
- https://www.ptsd.va.gov/understand_tx/tx_basics.asp