The stability of emotional symptoms among disaster victims in a developing country

Abstract

This stability of emotional distress following a major disaster in Colombia was evaluated in a 2-year follow-up of a representative subsample of 40 adult victims of the Armero disaster in Colombia. The utilization of the Self-Reporting Questionnaire indicated an increase of emotional distress from 55% to 78%. However, the mean neurotic subscale score, the most frequent neurotic symptoms, the strongest predictors of emotional distress, and the symptom-profiles of distressed victims were essentially the same.