Medically Unexplained Physical Symptoms in the Aftermath of Disasters

Extract

INTRODUCTION

Many studies have examined the health problems among survivors of disasters, showing that the most frequently reported symptoms after disasters are mental health problems, such as posttraumatic stress symptoms, depression, and anxiety (1, 2).

In the last decade, the Netherlands was struck by a few national disasters. On October 4, 1992, an El Al Boeing 747 airplane crashed into two apartment buildings in an Amsterdam suburb. Six years after the airplane crash, a study of the health effects of the crash was conducted. This study showed that, in addition to mental health problems, physical symptoms were very prevalent among the survivors of the plane crash (3, 4). On May 13, 2000, a fireworks depot exploded in a residential area of the city of Enschede. The explosions and subsequent fire killed 22 people and injured over 900 people, and about 500 homes were severely damaged or destroyed. The Dutch government declared this a national disaster, and the Ministry of Health, Welfare, and Sports decided to launch a study into the health effects of this disaster. This study showed that a substantial proportion of those who were affected by the fireworks disaster suffered from physical symptoms, such as headache, fatigue, and pain in the stomach, chest, joints, and muscles (5, 6). These symptoms are often labeled as medically unexplained physical symptoms (MUPS), but other labels, such as psychosomatic symptoms or functional somatic syndromes, have been given as well (7).