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Learning Objective 1: Discover that disaster victims experience depression.
Learning Objective 2: Identify various causes that lead to depression in disaster victims.
Disasters are distressing events that lead to widespread destruction and distress to individuals and communities at large. These disasters are considered to cause multi-dimensional effects on human health out of which one significant aspect is the experience of depression in the victims. A computerized systemic review of electronic data such as Pub Med, CINHAL, etc was done for years 1995 to 2010. Total 30 articles were retrieved. The literature review revealed that several factors contribute to the development of depression in disaster victims. The extent of depressive symptoms depends upon the extent of trauma and damage caused by the disaster event. However, victims are more depressed immediately after the disaster event. In addition, environmental stressors such as relocation of residence, decreased accessibility to heath care facilities, breakdown of communicable diseases, change in the life style, language barrier, unemployment and threat to security, etc further complicate the scenario. Victim’s Maslow’s hierarchy is disturbed which is the major cause of depression. This Depression require immediate attention as it can be very debilitating and can persist several years after a disaster resulting in significant functional impairment and serious mental health problems. These findings could be implemented at mega scale for health promotion and early prevention. It is recommended that mental health services and support groups should be made accessible soon after the disaster and awareness sessions should be conducted at large to combat against depression.