Post-Traumatic Stress among Evacuees from the 2016 Fort McMurray Wildfires: Exploration of Psychological and Sleep Symptoms Three Months after the Evacuation
School of Psychology, Laval University, Quebec, QC G1V 0A6, Canada
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Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2019, 16(9), 1604; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16091604
Received: 25 February 2019 / Revised: 25 April 2019 / Accepted: 3 May 2019 / Published: 8 May 2019
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Health-Related Emergency Disaster Risk Management (Health-EDRM))
This study documents post-traumatic stress symptoms after the May 2016 wildfires in Fort McMurray (Alberta, Canada). A sample of 379 evacuees completed an online questionnaire from July to September 2016, and a subsample of 55 completed a psychiatric/psychological diagnostic interview. According to a self-report questionnaire, 62.5% of respondents had a provisional post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The interview confirmed that 29.1% met criteria for PTSD, 25.5% for depression, and 43.6% for insomnia; in most cases, insomnia was definitely or probably related to the fires. Traumatic exposure may elicit or exacerbate sleep problems, which are closely associated with PTSD after a disaster.
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MDPI and ACS Style
Belleville, G.; Ouellet, M.-C.; Morin, C.M. Post-Traumatic Stress among Evacuees from the 2016 Fort McMurray Wildfires: Exploration of Psychological and Sleep Symptoms Three Months after the Evacuation. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2019, 16, 1604.
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