Trauma on trauma. Lessons from the tsunami and civil conflict in Sri Lanka.

Ethnic Conflict, the State and Tsunami Disaster in Sri Lanka

Developments in Sri Lanka after the Tsunami disaster of December 26, 2004 have intensified the country’s prolonged political crisis. This deepening crisis is exemplified in the continuing debate concerning the inconclusive efforts being made by the government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to find a framework of cooperation to obtain and utilise international assis...

Assessing Vulnerability Before, During and After a Natural Disaster in Fragile Regions Case Study of the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami in Sri Lanka and Indonesia

Current approaches of measuring vulnerability to natural hazards generally use a rather static perspective that focuses on a single point in time—often before a hazardous event occurs. In contrast, the paper argues that vulnerability assessment should also take into account the changing dynamics during and after a disaster. This paper provides a comparative analysis of the situation in Sri Lank...

Psychological trauma of the civil war in Sri Lanka.

Collective trauma in northern Sri Lanka: a qualitative psychosocial-ecological study

BACKGROUND Complex situations that follow war and natural disasters have a psychosocial impact on not only the individual but also on the family, community and society. Just as the mental health effects on the individual psyche can result in non pathological distress as well as a variety of psychiatric disorders; massive and widespread trauma and loss can impact on family and social processes c...

Post-tsunami stress: a study of posttraumatic stress disorder in children living in three severely affected regions in Sri Lanka.

At 3 to 4 weeks after the December 2004 tsunami disaster we assessed symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in 264 children who lived in severely affected coastal communities in Manadkadu (northern coast), Kosgoda (western coast), and Galle (southern coast) in Sri Lanka. The prevalence rate of tsunami-related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (ignoring the time criterion) ranged be...