Stress and Resilience in a Terror-Targeted Society

A survey just published in BMC Psychiatry examined exposure to terrorism, traumatic stress-related symptoms (TSRS), PTSD, depression, and a number of other related factors in the Israeli population. Of the 501 respondents, 11.2% reported direct exposure to a terror-related incident while 20.2% reported having a family member or friend exposed. 9% met criteria for PTSD, while 14.4% were traumatic-stress resilient. 47% feared for their lives. 29.5% of respondents reported depression, 10.4% reported anxiety, and 9.7% desired professional psychiatric help. People of Arab ethnicity and women had increased rates of TSRS and PTSD and less resiliency. Interestingly, severity of terror exposure was not positively correlated with TSRS. http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/1741-7015-4-21.pdf