The availability of social support after a traumatic event such as a natural disaster could help buffer the development of depressive and PTSD symptoms in individuals exposed to the event, according to research published April 5.
In the Journal of Traumatic Stress, researchers reported the results of a survey of 810 adults who were exposed to the third-deadliest hurricane in U.S. history – Hurricane Katrina – in August 2005. Of those adults, 259 were displaced by the hurricane and 546 were not displaced. All of the adults were residents of Mississippi before the hurricane. More than half of the participants were women (52.2%), most were white (73.5%), and their ages ranged from 18 to 91 years.
Interviewers who were supervised by doctoral level clinicians administered numerous self-report questionnaires 18-24 months after the hurricane. Among other measures, the interviews included the Composite International Interview for DSM-IV.
The researchers found a significant negative interaction between perceived social support received in the 2 months after the hurricane and depressive symptoms, both in displaced and nondisplaced individuals.
The study also showed that the number of Katrina-related traumatic events, and whether an individual had been displaced or not, were associated with depressive symptoms – even after accounting for potential confounders, such as the number of previous traumatic events, age, and minority status.
In addition, the study explored the interaction between the number of hurricane-related traumatic events, perceived social support received, and displacement status as predictors of each cluster of PTSD symptoms. Individuals who experienced greater numbers of hurricane-related traumatic events and were displaced by the event showed more reexperiencing, avoidance, and arousal symptoms. However, social support was associated with lower likelihood of all PTSD symptom clusters.
Nondisplaced individuals who experienced a greater number of hurricane-related traumatic events showed higher arousal and avoidance symptoms, but this was only significant in individuals who reported lower levels of social support.