Post-traumatic disorders as a consequence of the disaster

Abstract

The paper discusses the post-traumatic disorders as the consequence of disaster, their course and determinants. As an illustration, the summary of the results of the Polish studies on flood survivors, conducted in 1999-2007, was presented. The studies were focused on the identification of risk factors for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), assessed in several groups of victims in the early (about three months) and late phase (from one to years) after the flood. The findings indicate that PTSD is a multi-causal phenomenon with many risk factors, preceding the flood and operating during the trauma and in the post-traumatic period, which result in arousing and maintaining in time PTSD symptoms. The main conclusion of Polish studies on flood survivors underlines the eminent role of personality traits, including temperament, as well as within-family factors influencing PTSD.