Analysis: Survivors 'could suffer more than soldiers returning from war'

Published on Tuesday 26 July 2011 18:28

Young survivors of the Norwegian massacre could experience worse post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) than soldiers returning from the front line of a war zone, a psychiatrist has said.

They could be left with debilitating mental and crippling physical health problems, including depression and constant anxiety, according to Professor Gordon Turnbull from the University of Chester.

The survivors are likely to suffer terrifying nightmares and flashbacks, and be plagued with feelings of guilt at not having saved their friends, he said. There was even an increased risk of developing certain types of cancer that the body's damaged immune system is less able to fight.

Prof Turnbull said the shootings would have a "massive" impact on the mental health of survivors, and could also trigger terrifying flashbacks among 7/7 survivors and others caught up in terrorist violence.

He said: "When people are exposed to trauma such as a life-threatening event either for themselves or for people close to them, they develop three things.

"They develop memories of the event that have already entered their headspace in the form of flashbacks and nightmares. They then develop an ability to avoid or suppress these memories causing the flashbacks.

"Also, because they are waiting for the next flashback to occur, they become very hypervigilant. That is an extraordinarily high level of being aware of your surroundings, feeling at risk and being on guard."

He said a large number of people caught up in the Norway shootings would experience the acute form of PTSD, but it should only continue for a month.

"If they have not been able to assimilate what went into their head and process it after one month, we say it's a chronic condition. Something has prevented it from being processed.

"We are still investigating what affects this, but what we do know is that if it is something which involved a lot of people all at once - such as the Norway shootings - a major trauma is probably more difficult to overcome, because it is so enormous.

"We talk about a ripple effect. It's like throwing a pebble into a pond. You have a big splash, but you also have ripples coming out from the initial splash. You have secondary victims, and even tertiary victims.

"It will not only affect people in Norway, but it will also affect people in the world who have been traumatised before who feel they are at risk of being involved in that. The people who were involved in 7/7 may be quite badly affected by what happened in Norway."

Soldiers, he said, would have had what is termed "stress inoculation" when undergoing training. "Training soldiers is really about preparing them for being in conflict and taking risks."

Prof Turnbull continued: "There will be people on the island who probably haven't had experience of trauma before. It will be a novel experience and then will be 'uninnoculated' - they will have a massive response to it. "There's also a larger amount of information to process. What happened in Norway was huge in its magnitude. It is a huge event, with a massive impact on people."

Those close to the survivors could also be at risk of PTSD. "The immediate relatives of people who have been involved in this will definitely be at risk. Even if they haven't been there, the news on TV can convey images that can traumatise people. It can even be passed on by word of mouth."