In an article on the mental health consequences of the Chernobyl disaster, published in a special section on Fukushima in The Journal of Radiological Protection,
Distinguished Professor Evelyn Bromet, PhD makes a case for including
standard measures of psychological well-being in the health monitoring
of the victims of the nuclear disaster at Fukushima and for training the
non-psychiatrist physicians in the region to recognize and follow up on
common mental health problems. Dr. Bromet’s recommendations were based
on a review of the literature related to the psychosocial consequences
of radiation disasters as well as her own studies of populations
affected by the Chernobyl disaster.
Dr. Bromet points out that
people in the area of the Chernobyl plant were exposed not only to
radiation, but to multiple psychological stressors, including
displacement, separation from families, misinformation, and
stigmatization. Comparisons of adult populations exposed to radiation
with demographically matched comparison groups who were not exposed
showed that after two decades the exposed populations had significantly
poorer mental health. The analyses indicated that perceived (rather than
actual) exposure to harmful levels of radiation was the key risk factor
and that mothers of young children were at particularly high risk. In
another study, clean-up workers (called liquidators) were found to have
higher rates of suicide, depression, PTSD and severe headache compared
to a matched comparison group. Studies of the long-term effects of
exposure on the psychological and cognitive development of children
yielded ambiguous results, partly because the researchers did not have
direct access to data on exposure.
Dr. Bromet points out in the
article that the Chernobyl Forum, an organization sponsored by the
United Nations, concluded that the greatest impact of the Chernobyl
disaster, in terms of the number of people affected and its implications
for public health, is its impact on mental health. This finding, she
argues, suggests the importance of including monitors of mental health
in the routine surveillance of populations affected by the accident at
Fukushima, of providing credible information to disaster victims and of
training physicians to recognize and treat common mental health
problems, while keeping in mind the significance of perceived, rather
than measured, exposure.