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Changes in Psychiatric Emergency Room Visits Following the Boston Marathon Bombing

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 August 2019

Amber Frank ,
Gaddy Noy ,
Clifton Chow  and
H. Stephen Leff
Amber Frank*
Affiliation:
Cambridge Health Alliance, Cambridge, MA
Gaddy Noy
Affiliation:
New York Presbyterian Hospital, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY
Clifton Chow
Affiliation:
Cambridge Health Alliance, Cambridge, MA
H. Stephen Leff
Affiliation:
Cambridge Health Alliance, Cambridge, MA
*
Correspondence and reprint requests to Amber Frank, 1493 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, MA 02139 (e-mail: aafrank@cha.harvard.edu).
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Abstract

Objective:

This study reviews patient encounters at a Boston-area community hospital Psychiatric Emergency Services (PES) following the Boston Marathon bombings, with the goal of describing the impact of terrorist attacks on PES encounters.

Methods:

All PES encounters for 2 months preceding and 2 months following the bombing were identified in the electronic medical record. Demographics, current and past psychiatric problems, and trauma history were assessed for all records. Encounters seen post-bombing were compared with those before the bombing.

Results:

Demographics, current and past psychiatric problems, and trauma history were not significantly different before versus after the bombing; 36 of 440 (8.2%) post-bombing encounters directly mentioned the bombings. New-onset posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms caused by the bombing occurred in only 4 encounters (0.9%).

Conclusions:

PES encounters after a terrorist event are likely to mirror those seen before a terrorist event, with only a minority of encounters presenting for new PTSD or acute stress disorder.

Keywords

bombscommunity mental health servicesemergency servicespsychiatric terrorismpsychologicalstress
Type
Brief Report
Information
Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness , Volume 14 , Issue 2 , April 2020 , pp. 178 - 182
Copyright
© 2019 Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, Inc.

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References

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