Chapter VII.
Mental Health Status of Women and Children Following Hurricane Katrina Stacy Overstreet and Berre Burch
Findings from the scientific literature clearly demonstrate that the psychological effects of natural disasters can be quite serious, particularly for women and children.1 Women who have lived through Hurricane Katrina and the levee failures in New Orleans are no exception to this rule. Although the empirical data regarding the mental health of women who lived through Hurricane Katrina is just beginning to emerge, it is generally consistent with previous research documenting high rates of psychological distress among women exposed to disasters.2 For example, Scheeringa et al. assessed the presence of psychiatric symptomatology among a sample of 70 mothers who lived in the New Orleans metropolitan area at the time of Hurricane Katrina. The majority of the women headed single-parent households. Six months after the storm, about half of the women met criteria for a psychiatric disorder, the most common of which was Posttraumatic Stress Disorder PTSD (35.6 percent).3 A study of Tulane University employees six months after the storm also revealed high rates of PTSD among women. In a sample of 1,542 employees, 21.9 percent of women reported clinically significant symptoms of PTSD, which was significantly higher than the 14.7 percent of men reporting a similar level of symptoms.4 Taking a more epidemiological approach to estimating the mental health sequelae of Hurricane Katrina, Ronald Kessler and his colleagues formed the Hurricane Katrina Community Advisory Group, which is a representative sample of 1,043 adults who resided in Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi prior to the storm.5 About six months after the storm, individuals were assessed to determine
the rate of anxiety and mood disorders, including PTSD. The rate of mental illness, generally, and PTSD, specifically, among study participants was high and particularly so for participants who lived in the New Orleans area. For example, 49.1 percent of participants living in New Orleans had a least one mood or anxiety disorder and 30.3 percent met criteria for PTSD, compared to 26.4 percent and 12.5 percent, respectively, of participants in the remainder of the sample. Women were at an even greater risk for mental illness. Specifically, women were 2.7 times more likely than men to have PTSD and 1.3 to 2 times more likely than men to have an anxiety or mood disorder other than PTSD.6 Previous research examining recovery after natural disasters has generally found that posttraumatic mental illness tends to resolve within one-to-two years following the disaster.7 This does not seem to be the case for those affected by Hurricane Katrina; rates of mental illness seem to be holding steady or actually increasing. For example, a follow-up study of the Hurricane Katrina Community Advisory Group one year after the storm found that the prevalence of serious anxiety/mood disorders and PTSD remained stable for participants from New Orleans and actually rose 4 percent and 8 percent, respectively, among the remainder of participants. Rates of suicidality significantly increased for all participants in the study sample; 6.4 percent of participants reported suicidal thoughts one year after the storm compared to 2.8 percent six months after.8 Abramson, Garfield, and Redlener found similarly troubling rates of mental illness one year after Hurricane Katrina based on a probability sample of households involving 576 Mississippi residents. In addition, 59
