Impact of childhood exposure to a natural disaster on adult mental health: 20-year longitudinal follow-up study

Background Studies examining the impact of childhood disaster exposure on the development of adult psychopathology report increased rates of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other psychopathology. Aims To examine the rates of PTSD and other lifetime DSM-IV disorders in adults exposed to an Australian bushfire disaster as children in 1983 using a matched control sample recruited at the time of the original study. Method A total of 1011 adults recruited from an original sample of 1531 were assessed 20 years following the fires using the Composite international Diagnostic interview (CIDI-2.1). Results Results showed only a small direct impact of the fires on adult psychiatric morbidity. A higher proportion of bushfire survivors met criteria for 'any DSM-IV disorder' and 'any anxiety'. Conclusions Findings suggest that the long-term impact of a prominent trauma in childhood should be assessed in the context of other lifetime trauma in order to provide a more accurate account of PTSD prevalence rates.