Niigata Quake Shelter Victims Anxiety Depression

Shelter life making quake victims lose sleep, hallucinate/a>

"NIIGATA -- One in four people forced to live in shelters following the quakes that devastated parts of Niigata Prefecture at the end of last month are suffering from sleeplessness, it has been learned.

And many people are suffering from fear of aftershocks and even hallucinations, Niigata prefectural health officials have found.

Officials gathered information from 153 care teams that included psychiatrists and clinical psychologists working at shelters between Oct. 26 and Nov. 5. Data on 1,270 quake victims was collected.

The most common condition affecting people at the shelters was sleeplessness, with 458 incidents reported, 27 percent of the total number of people.

Of the 642 problems reported among elderly people aged 65 or over, 174 were all "sleeplessness."

The second most common condition was "fear of or anxiety about the future or aftershocks," reported in 314 cases, followed by "lethargy" in 34 cases, "irritation" in 30 cases, "depression" in 26 cases and "hallucinations and delusions" in 10 cases."

Mainichi Shimbun, Japan, Nov. 18, 2004