Adolescents Struggle with Disaster

Two years after the fact, Dutch teens are still overcoming the
trauma. On New Years Day, 2001, a fire in a cafe in Volendam,
Netherlands, killed 14 teenagers and wounded 250. The teens connected to
the disaster have shown signs of greater anxiety, aggression and alcohol
abuse, according to a study that has tracked their ability to
cope.

Before the fire, the students from Volendam had enrolled in a study
investigating the effectiveness of a school health program designed to
identify and prevent behavioral and emotional problems. Five months after
the fire, three quarters of the students involved with the disaster
agreed to be reevaluated.

The students reported three times more depression, anxiety,
incoherent thinking and aggression, than students not involved with the
fire. The Volendam students were four times more likely to abuse alcohol,
and girls showed more mental trauma than boys.

Head researcher Sijmen Reijneveld explains that after such a
disaster, teens may need mental health care to overcome traumatic
situations. Without help they may be unable cope to with the complex
emotions associated with posttraumatic stress disorder -- depression,
anxiety and stress. "Adolescents are inclined to react to severe
stressful events with excessive use of alcohol, " he writes.

The study was published in this week's issue of
The Lancet.