Tsunami nations to see surge of depression, anxiety

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Five percent of tsunami survivors—up to 200,000 people in Indonesia’s Aceh province alone—could develop severe depression and other long-term mental health disorders, World Health Organization officials said on Tuesday.

With immediate food and medical needs being met, Indonesia is likely to see a surge in psychological problems among tsunami survivors in the next month, including suicide attempts and domestic violence, officials said.

Tens of thousands of people across the Indian Ocean region lost relatives and friends when a magnitude 9 earthquake off Indonesia’s Sumatra island triggered a tsunami that crushed coastal villages and swept people into the sea. As many as 290,000 people are dead or missing.

Dr. Benedetto Saraceno, director of the Department of Mental Health at WHO headquarters in Geneva, said about 50 percent of survivors may suffer some short-term mental health problems.

Five to 10 percent will develop severe, long-term psychiatric issues that will require professional care, mainly depression, anxiety and sleep disorders.

Indonesia’s hardest-hit area, Aceh province, has about four million people and only five psychiatrists, he said.

“We can expect that almost half a million people will experience something that will need psycho-social support and probably 200,000 or more will require, in the future, psychiatric care,” Saraceno told a news conference in Jakarta.

With a population of 220 million people, Indonesia has only 500 psychiatrists, while the United States, with 293 million people, has “tens of thousands,” WHO officials said.

Health officials plan a study of mental health needs in the next month in Aceh, the province at the northern tip of Sumatra island where more than 220,000 are dead or missing.

Local health care providers will be trained to recognise and deal with the expected epidemic. Tsunami survivors “need to be listened to, not given advice,” Saraceno said. 

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