Disaster Victim Identification: Psychological Distress and Posttraumatic Stress in Dentists After the 2011 Fukushima Disaster.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the correlates of psychological responses in dentists who conducted disaster victim identification (DVI) in Fukushima following the 2011 earthquake/tsunami/nuclear disaster.

METHOD: Self-report questionnaires were administered to 49 male dentists six to nine months after the disaster. Psychological distress and posttraumatic stress were measured using the General Health Questionnaire-30 (GHQ-30) and Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R), respectively. Independent variables included sociodemographic characteristics, participant disaster exposures, DVI-related exposures, and fear of radiation exposure during DVI. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis was performed to examine independent-dependent variable relations.

RESULTS: Thirty-eight participants (77.6%) had examined ≥ 40 corpses, 20 (40.8%) reported ≥ 4 corpse-related exposures, and six (12.2%) reported ≥ 5 gruesome corpse exposures. Mean (SD) GHQ-30 and IES-R scores were 5.08 (5.31) and 9.90 (10.1), respectively. Higher levels of psychological distress were associated with younger age (adjusted β = -0.29), extensive property loss (β = 0.34), and anxiety for the future (β = 0.33). Higher levels of posttraumatic stress were associated with extensive property loss (adjusted R2  = 17.7%, β = 0.30). Neither outcome was associated with DVI-related exposures or fear of radiation exposure during DVI (p < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS: Dentists' psychological burden was associated with disaster, but not DVI, exposures.