nuclear-news

The psychological toll on nuclear workers in Japan

Nuclear Workers Stressed After Japanese Quake Med Page Today, By Michael Smith,  August 14, 2012 Reviewed by Dori F. Zaleznik, MD; Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston and Dorothy Caputo, MA, BSN, RN, Nurse Planner

Action Points
This study of psychological distress and post-traumatic stress response among workers at two nuclear power plants involved in the Fukushima earthquake/tsunami found high levels of self-reported distress especially among workers at the plant that suffered the meltdown…

Psychological distress and post-traumatic stress response (PTSR) were common among workers at two Japanese nuclear plants in the wake of the March 11, 2011 earthquake, researchers reported. But rates were significantly higher among workers at the Daiichi
plant, which suffered a meltdown, than they were at the Daini plant, which was damaged but remained intact, according to Takeshi Tanigawa, MD, PhD, of Ehime University Graduate School of Medicine in Ehime, Japan, and colleagues.

Both groups of workers were exposed — at much the same rate — to slurs and discrimination because the Tokyo Electric Power Company, which operates the plants, was widely criticized for its response to the disaster, Tanigawa and colleagues reported in the Aug. 15 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The study is one of two examining aspects of the events in the
journal. In the second, researchers led by Masaharu Tsubokura, MD, of
the University of Tokyo, measured only low levels of radiation in both
children and adults in a city north of the Daiichi plant 7 to 12
months after the events.

Tanigawa and colleagues used a self-report questionnaire to assess
sociodemographic characteristics and disaster-related experiences of
the 1,053 Daiichi and 707 Daini workers in May and June 2011. Of the
1,760 workers, 85% responded, they reported.

They measured psychological distress and PTSR using the Japanese
versions of the Kessler 6 screening scale and the 22-item Impact of
Event Revised scale, respectively.

Workers at the Daiichi plant were significantly more likely than those
at the Daini facility to have several psychological stressors
including such things as having a near-death experience, being
evacuated after the tsunami, seeing plant explosions, and having
colleagues die, the researchers found.

Perhaps not surprisingly, nearly half of the workers at the Daiichi
plant met the criterion for high psychological distress ….
http://www.medpagetoday.com/Psychiatry/GeneralPsychiatry/34198

August 16, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Japan, psychology - mental health