2003/10/15 by Sherry H Stewart, Terry L Mitchell, Terry Mitchell +4
Computer Science · Health Professions · Psychology · #Blockchain Technology in Education and Learning #Disaster Response and Management #Edcuational Technology Systems #Educational Methods and Media Use #Migration, Health and Trauma #Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Research
paper · doi:10.1016/j.janxdis.2003.07.006
openalex publication_date 2010/05/21 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/04/28
We investigated the effects of the 1998 Swissair Flight 111 (SA 111) disaster on a variety of indices of alcohol use among volunteer responders. We retrospectively administered standardized questionnaires and a semi-structured interview to 13 volunteer disaster workers recruited from the community. According to the interview, 54% of the volunteers were exposed to human remains. According to Modified Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Symptoms Scale responses, 46% met DSM-IV criteria for PTSD. Frequency and severity of PTSD symptoms, but not human remains exposure, per se, were positively correlated with coping-motivated drinking (but not social or mood enhancement drinking) and with alcohol use to forget. The re-experiencing and hyper-arousal PTSD symptom dimensions showed the strongest and most consistent correlations with the alcohol use indices. We discuss ways in which the information gleaned from this sample can be used to improve disaster response planning to minimize the probability of maladaptive coping drinking among volunteers.