Religious Beliefs, PTSD, Depression and Resilience in Survivors of the 2010 Haiti Earthquake

- This is one of the first study in the mental health area that was carried out in Haiti in different religious groups exploring association between their belief, perception of the event, peritraumatic reaction and subsequent post-traumatic symptoms, and resilience factors.
- To our knowledge, this provide to the community first data about prevalence of depression in a minority group (Voodo members) exposed to the earthquake and post-disaster animosity compared to their counterparts from other denominations.
- We showed a higher prevalence of post-traumatic symptoms women compared to men.
- We found that depressive symptoms were associated with resilience score.

BackgroundThis study examines relationships between religious beliefs regarding the origin of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti and posttraumatic symptomatology as well as depressive symptoms and resilience among its survivors.MethodWe used convenient sampling to recruit participants (n=167). They completed six scales, which had been translated into Haitian Creole, including measures such as the Earthquake Experiences Exposure (EEE), the Peritraumatic Distress Inventory (PDI), the Peritraumatic Dissociative Experience Questionnaire (PDEQ), the PTSD Checklist (PTSD-CL), the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD- RISC)ResultsAmong our participants, 51% were male, (mean age=30.5, SD=11.03), 92% (n=155) were believers in some sort of supernatural force and 65% (n=108) endorsed the earthquake as a natural phenomenon. There was significant difference in average scores at peritraumatic distress, PTSD symptoms and Resilience measures between those perceiving a divine origin and/or a punishment through the event and those who did not. Peritraumatic responses were best predictors for PTSD (β=.366, p<.001) and Depression symptoms (β=.384, p<.001). Voodoo adherents appeared to be vulnerable to depression, but reported superior resilience factors