Mental Health Consequences of September 11: A Five-Year Review of the Behavioral Sciences Literature

ABSTRACT

This publication provides an overview of studies conducted on different segments of the population and the psychological reactions of respondents to the devastating events of September 11, 2001. This investigation stems out of an intellectual curiosity to learn about the psychological impact of this tragedy in general, and to retrieve studies conducted on families who lost loved ones in particular. To this end, a comprehensive review of the medical and psychological literature was conducted in order to retrieve original research reported in peer-reviewed journal articles published between October 2001 and December 2006. Findings suggest that the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks contributed to widespread and sometimes continued psychological and emotional problems.

KEYWORDS:

• September 11 terrorist attacks
• terrorism
• posttraumatic stress syndrome
• psychological stress
• PTSD

The author wishes to thank Laura Bowering Mullen, Behavioral Sciences Librarian at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, for her review of this manuscript.

The original preprint version is available on RUcore (Rutgers Community Repository) at http://mss3.libraries.rutgers.edu/dlr/TMP/rutgers-lib_21042-PDF-1.pdf

On a personal note, the author researched this topic because she lost her precious son, Peter E. Mardikian, in the World Trade Center attacks of September 11, 2001.