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Director’s Update
September 7, 2005

Coping with Hurricane Katrina

Update from the Director
Thomas R. Insel, M.D.
Director, NIMH
September 2005

Managing the Aftermath

The initial response to a disaster like Hurricane Katrina rightly focuses on meeting the immediate material needs of survivors. As the nation addresses those needs, it must also prepare to meet the often acute emotional needs of both survivors and responders.

Relief workers can promote mental health by creating and sustaining an environment of safety, calm, connectedness to others, self-empowerment, and hopefulness. Workers should:

We also know there are things to avoid doing, such as:

Looking to Recovery

It's very important to acknowledge that people often experience strong and unpleasant emotional and physical responses to disasters. Reactions may include combinations of hopelessness, helplessness, depression, sleeplessness, anxiousness, physical pain, confusion, fear, anger, grief, shock, guilt, mistrust of others, and loss of confidence in self or others. If these reactions last for more than a month, however, then a person may have Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

PTSD is a sometimes debilitating mental health disorder that typically develops in a small percentage of people after exposure to an event in which grave physical harm occurred or was threatened. People with PTSD may repeatedly re-experience a traumatic event through flashback episodes, nightmares, or frightening and intrusive thoughts, especially when something reminds them of the trauma.

PTSD is not a condition that is merely "in people's heads": we know from research that the biological response to danger or threats — the so-called "fight or flight" response — malfunctions in people with PTSD, leaving them unable to turn off the intense emotional and physical sensations. They feel they are in danger even after it has passed.

The good news is that researchers — supported by NIMH, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and other agencies — have developed effective treatments for PTSD. These include medications and cognitive and behavioral psychosocial treatments — talk therapies that teach people to manage upsetting and unwanted thoughts as well as physical symptoms.

NIMH urges its constituents — researchers, mental health providers, advocates, and the general public — to consider how they can aid Hurricane Katrina survivors and responders.

More information about coping with traumatic events