Review shows consistent patterns regardless of disaster type, population, or mental health outcome studied
TUESDAY, March 3, 2026 (HealthDay News) — Postdisaster mental health problems can peak more than a decade after an event, according to a review published online Feb. 17 in Harvard Review of Psychiatry.
Michel L.A. Dückers, Ph.D., from University of Groningen in the Netherlands, and colleagues conducted a systematic literature review to examine the long-term consequences of disasters on mental health.
Based on 71 studies (137,004 participants), the researchers found the pooled average prevalence of current or recent mental health problems was 22.1 percent. Prevalence did not differ by disaster type (natural or human-made), category (e.g., earthquakes, floods, terrorist attacks), mental health outcome (e.g., posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety), population type (children/adolescents, adults), year, study quality, or country income in an adjusted analysis. After an initial peak in the first months, the mental health burden in exposed populations decreased from month 1 to 300, followed by a second peak after approximately a decade before declining again.
“Mental health burdens postdisaster may be more universally distributed than previously believed,” the authors write. “Earlier studies identifying gradual postdisaster recovery may have underestimated the long-term effects.”
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