Exposure to Hurricane-Related Stressors and Mental Illness After Hurricane Katrina

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Abstract
It is well established that natural disasters lead to increased prevalence of mental illness in the range of 5% to 40%,1,2 although most increases are in the lower half of this range.3-8 Much of the between-disaster variation is likely due to differential disaster severity and exposure,9 as indicated by the fact that studies of people who experienced devastating loss in major natural disasters consistently document high prevalence of mental illness.1,10 Assessment of individual stressors in natural disasters is nonetheless challenging, and our understanding of their effects on postdisaster mental illness remains limited.