Post-traumatic stress disorder in Thai children living in area affected by the tsunami disaster: a 3 years follow-up study

Objective: to study the prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder (ptsd) in thai children and adolescents studying in the area affected by the december 26th, 2004 tsunami disaster. this prospective study was carried out during the 3 years period after the disaster. methods: one thousand, six hundred and twenty-five surviving students from two schools in takuapa district of phang-nga province participated in this cross-section study. screening was done by using the pediatric symptom checklists (psc), the childhood depressive intervention (cdi) and the revised child impact of events scales (cries-8). dsm-iv ptsd was diagnosed by child and adolescent psychiatrists. data were analysed by using spss version 10.0. results: the prevalence rates of pstd in the students facing the tsunami disaster were 57.3%, 46.1%, 31.6%, 10.4%, 7.6% and 4.5% at 6 weeks, 6 months, 1 year, 1 1/2 year , 2 years and 3 years after the disaster, respectively. female to male ratio was 1.7:1. the peak age was 9-10 years old. twenty-one cases (8.5%) still exhibited a wide range of ptsd symptoms but not fulfill the dsm-iv diagnostic criteria for ptsd. conclusions: the prevalence of pstd in students was 57.3% at 6 weeks after the disaster. it declined sharply at 1 year after the event. despite receiving financial, rehabilitation and mental health supports, 4.5% of the victims still fulfill the diagnostic criteria for ptsd after 3 years of the disaster