Effect of reliving of earthquake on PTSD among disaster-stricken people of Wenchuan earthquake

Objective To examine the effects of earthquake reliving on post-traumatic stress disorder(PTSD) among the disaster-stricken people of Wenchuan earthquake.Methods Totally 188 disaster-stricken persons were tested with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder-self scoring(PTSD-ss) before and after a short film watching and were investigated with a questionnaire on the earthauake exposure conditions.Results Before watching the short film,the total score for PTSD-ss,the scores for subjective evaluation,reappearance,and alertness were 48.27±20.27,3.43±1.89,11.96±7.11,and 7.80±5.71,respectively,and obviously lower than those of after watching the film(48.18±14.62,4.07±1.46,15.77±5.48,and 12.35±4.55,respectively) with significant differences(P< 0.05 for all) among the disaster-stricke people.Conclusion The reliving of earthquake maybe strengthen PTSD symptoms among disaster-stricken people,but it has therapeutic effect on some PTSD symptoms such as avoidance for disaster-stricken people.