Trauma, Depression, Anxiety, and Stress among Individuals Living in Earthquake Affected and Unaffected Areas

Earthquake of 8th October 2005 affected many regions in Pakistan. After about a year of the earthquake trauma, depression, anxiety, and stress were studied among 600 individuals (300 from the three earthquake affected areas and a comparable number from three unaffected areas). Urdu translated version of Impact of Event Scale (Aslam, 2007); Urdu translated version of Depression, Anxiety, Stress Scale (Aslam, 2007); and Ego-resiliency Scale (Nangiana, 2002) were used. Significant differences were observed between participants of affected and unaffected areas on all the variables studied. In affected areas, married individuals scored significantly higher on the variables of trauma, depression, and stress as compared to unmarried individuals and women scored higher on the variable of stress as compared to men. The construct of ego-resiliency explained its inverse relationship with the levels of PTSD, depression, anxiety, and stress observed among individuals living in affected and unaffected areas. Practical implications were discussed and suggestions for future research were made.