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Global health
Case report
PTSD and bipolar II disorder in Fukushima disaster relief workers after the 2011 nuclear accident
  1. Arinobu Hori1,2,
  2. Yoshitake Takebayashi3,
  3. Masaharu Tsubokura4 and
  4. Yoshiharu Kim5
  1. 1Department of Psychiatry, Hori Mental Clinic, Minami-soma, Fukushima, Japan
  2. 2Department of Neuropsychiatry, Fukushima Medical University School of Medicine, Fukushima, Fukushima, Japan
  3. 3Department of Health Risk Communication, Fukushima Medical University School of Medicine, Fukushima, Fukushima, Japan
  4. 4Department of Radiation Health Management, Fukushima Medical University School of Medicine, Fukushima, Fukushima, Japan
  5. 5National Institute of Mental Health, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, Kodaira, Tokyo, Japan
  1. Correspondence to Dr Arinobu Hori; arinobu.h{at}gmail.com

Abstract

The global threat posed by the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need to accurately identify the immediate and long-term postdisaster impacts on disaster-relief workers. We examined the case of a local government employee suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and bipolar II disorder following the Great East Japan Earthquake. The complex and harsh experience provoked a hypomanic response such as elated feelings with increased energy, decreased need for sleep and an increase in goal-directed activity, which allowed him to continue working, even though he was adversely affected by the disaster. However, 3.5 years later, when he suffered further psychological damage, his PTSD symptoms became evident. In addition to treating mood disorders, trauma-focused psychotherapy was required for his recovery. Thereafter, we considered the characteristics of mental health problems that emerge in disaster-relief workers, a long time after the disaster, and the conditions and treatments necessary for recovery.

  • public health
  • psychotherapy
  • mood disorders (including depression)
  • global health
  • anxiety disorders (including OCD and PTSD)
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.

https://doi.org/10.1136/bcr-2020-236725

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors AH was the main therapist of the case and wrote the initial manuscript. YT and MT critically revised the manuscript. YK supervised the case. All authors contributed to the refinement of the paper and approved the final manuscript.

    • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Patient consent for publication Obtained.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.