Flooding and mental health
Citation: Fernandez A, Black J, Jones M, Wilson L, Salvador-Carulla L, Astell-Burt T, Black D. Flooding and mental health: a systematic mapping review. PloS ONE. 2015;10(4):e0119929.
Language: Abstract and full text only available in EN.
Free to view: Yes.
Funding sources: The authors reported that they received no specific funding for this review.
What is this? Natural disasters such as flooding can have a negative impact on mental health.
In this systematic mapping review, the authors searched for studies on the mental health effects of floods caused by extended periods of rain. They restricted their searches to articles published in English, Spanish, French, Italian or Portuguese between January 1994 and May 2014. They included 83 studies in the review.
What was found: There was an increase in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in affected areas.
People exposed to flooding had higher levels of anxiety and depression than those that were not exposed to flooding.
Overall psychological health and mental health-related quality of life was significantly worse in affected areas than in non-affected areas.
Use of psychotropic medication increased after flooding events.
The higher the flooding exposure the stronger the mental health symptoms. The impact on mental health was less on those with positive coping skills and social support. Presence of physical health problems before the flooding increased the mental health problems after the flooding.
Implications: The authors of this review concluded that acute responses and long-term support are needed to reduce mental health problems in people affected by flooding. They recommended that future research should include mixed-method studies, focus on vulnerable groups and include analyses of policy and practical responses.
Other considerations: The authors of the review discussed their findings in the context of age, socioeconomic status.
This summary was prepared by Joly Ghanawi, edited and finalized by Mike Clarke.