Volume 16, Number 3, 301-306, DOI: 10.1023/A:1023708410513

Psychiatric Medication Use Among Manhattan Residents Following the World Trade Center Disaster

Joseph A. Boscarino, Sandro Galea, Jennifer Ahern, Heidi Resnick and David Vlahov

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Abstract

To assess medication use in New York after the September 11th attacks, a telephone survey was conducted in October 2001 (N = 1,008). The prevalence of psychiatric medication use 30 days before the disaster was 8.9 and 11.6% 30 days after, a small but significant increase. The most important factor predicting postdisaster use was predisaster use—92% of those who used medications postdisaster used them predisaster. In addition, 3.3% used psychiatric medications 30 days postdisaster, but not 30 days before. Those who had panic attacks, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and insurance coverage, were the most likely medicated (26.5%). However, among those who used postdisaster medications (n = 129), new users tended to be those with panic attacks (44.1%) and those with panic attacks and PTSD (69.2%).

pharmaceuticals - posttraumatic stress disorder - disasters - panic attack - service utilization

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