The Symptoms of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Depression Among Adult Earthquake Survivors in China

The objective of the study was to examine the relationships between mental health conditions (posttraumatic stress disorder [PTSD] only, depression only, and PTSD and depression) and related factors. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 1362 adults from two severely affected townships at 6 months after the earthquake. The results of the analyses showed that the prevalence of depression and PTSD were 31.4% and 22.1%, respectively, 6 months after the earthquake. When PTSD and depression were treated as two separate dependent variables, PTSD and depression share almost similar sets of predictive factors. After its four categories (none, PTSD only, depression only, and PTSD and depression) were used as categorical dependent variables, there are different predictive factors. The findings suggest that there are two different groups of individuals, those who develop depression only in response to earthquake exposure and those who develop both depression and PTSD.