Medium-term course of disaster victims. A naturalistic follow-up

Our aim was to describe the medium-term course (2-3 years) in a series of victims who had experienced severe trauma.

We selected a consecutive series of 31 trauma victims and applied a structured clinical schedule (CAPS-2) to their psychiatric evaluations prepared for the court on two separate occasions approximately one year apart.

Post-traumatic stress disorder and depression were the commonest diagnoses, occurring in 39% and 16% of the victims respectively when they were first assessed. Most had improved between the assessments and this was especially the case for the re-experiencing of the trauma and over-arousal, but less so for avoidance; 20% of subjects showed no improvement, often being handicapped by secondary psychiatric illness.

Traumatised victims generally showed recovery in the 2-3 years after the trauma, but this was slow and was not universal.