OBJECTIVE: Since September 2000 Israeli society has been subjected to numerous deadly terror attacks. Few studies have studied the comparative mental health vulnerability of minorities and majorities to continuous terror attacks. METHOD: 2 telephone surveys (N = 512 and 501) on 2 distinct representative samples of the Israeli population after 19 months and after 44 months of terror. The Arab minority and Jewish majority were compared on measures of exposure to terrorism, posttraumatic stress symptomatology, feeling depressed, coping, sense of safety, future orientation, and previous traumatic experiences. RESULTS: After 19 months of terrorist attacks Arab Israelis and Jewish Israelis reacted roughly similarly to the situation, however after 44 months of terror, posttraumatic symptom disorder in the Arab population increased 3-fold, posttraumatic symptomatology doubled, and resiliency almost disappeared. CONCLUSION: We suggest that certain conditions inherent to political conflict situations may potentially put minorities at risk and may only be observable as terrorism-related stressors become chronic. [Author Abstract] KEY WORDS: terrorism; trauma; posttraumatic symptom disorder; cross-cultural comparison; minority groups

Religious observance has a protective effect on the mental health of individuals facing adverse events. Its role under terrorism has been less investigated. Gaza and West Bank settlers, both secular and those keeping different degrees of observance, have faced terrorism in recent years. We investigated their PERI'“Demoralization mean scores following terrorist attacks controlling for confounding variables. The results showed that the higher the religiosity the lower the demoralization mean score. This protective effect lessened when there was dissonance between the degree of religiosity of the respondent and the religious observance of the settlement of residence. [Author Abstract]

Following the attacks on the New York World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, the EMDR Humanitarian Assistance Program initiated a response establishing the New York City Disaster Mental Health Recovery Network. The network provided coordination and assistance to local psychotherapists who volunteered to provide treatment to individuals directly affected by the tragedy. The psychotherapists utilized both the EMDR standard protocol and the EMDR Recent Events protocol during the initial aftermath and ongoing recovery at the World Trade Center site. The development of the network is reviewed, and detailed descriptions are provided regarding three cases to illustrate the use of the EMDR Recent Events protocol. The research findings reported by Silver, Rogers, Knipe, and Colelli that demonstrated support for EMDR as a postdisaster treatment are summarized. Further research is recommended. [Author Abstract] KEY WORDS: eye movement desensitization and reprocessing; Recent Events protocol; terrorism; man-made disasters; September 11 terrorist attacks (2001); survivors

Introduction: Historically, terrorism has occurred in various regions of the world and has been considered a local problem until the September, 11 terrorist attacks on the United States in 2001. After 9/11, terrorism has become a global concern. The definition of terrorism has changed from a violent act of a group of local people against their own government for political gains to a violent act of people of a country against another country for political attention. Now a global phenomenon, terrorism has become analogous to a state of war, affecting children and families all over the world and creating a demand for mental health services directed at helping people cope with their feelings following terrorist attacks. This study investigates Turkish elementary school students' perceptions of worldwide terrorism. Method: Participants comprised 190 fourth and fifth grade elementary school students (98 boys and 92 girls) from four elementary schools in Istanbul. 98 students were in fourth grade and 92 students were in fifth grade. Students' ages ranged from 9 to 15 ( M = 10.66, SD = 0.76). The Questionnaire of Children's Perception of Terror (QoCPoT) was developed by the authors and is used in this study. Data were analyzed in SPSS 14. Results: The results indicate that most children know that terrorist attacks took place in Turkey, the United States and around the world. Students most frequently defined terrorism as 'the killing of innocent people' and categorized terrorists as 'bandits.' They report feeling bad when they hear the word 'terrorism.' Findings suggest that there are gender differences in children's perception of terrorism in the affective and cognitive domains. Discussion: This study provides preliminary information about Turkish children's perceptions of local and global terrorism in cognitive and affective domains of functioning. In general, most children in the study are knowledgeable about the terrorist attacks took place in Turkey, the United States a

This article describes a controlled clinical trial of cognitive-behavioral treatment (CBT) for disaster workers. Despite high rates of PTSD in disaster workers worldwide, there have been no randomized trials of PTSD treatment. Participants were randomly assigned to a 12-week cognitive-behavioral exposure treatment (CBT, N = 15) or a treatment-as-usual (N = 16) condition. 8 CBT and 14 treatment-as-usual participants completed treatment. An ANOVA examining changes in Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale scores found significant main effects of Time, Group, and a Time X Group interaction (p's < 0.010) with a significantly greater decline in symptom scores in the CBT group. Between-group effect sizes were large. Dropout was associated with lower income, less education, and higher alcohol consumption. This project demonstrates the feasibility of recruitment in the aftermath of a catastrophic event, the relevance of a brief focused intervention comprised of CBT and exposure, and the need to eliminate barriers to treatment retention associated with income and education. [Author Abstract] KEY WORDS: PTSD; cognitive-behavioral therapy; exposure therapy; treatment; disaster workers

The terrorist attacks of 9/11 were traumatic even for Americans who were not directly victimized or in the geographic vicinity. This study examined whether emotional support received through interaction with others buffered the association between terrorism-related stress and psychological health (depression, anxiety, and physical symptoms) for individuals with lower exposure to the attacks. Five hundred eleven college students from an eastern university completed measures of goal disruption (stress) from terrorism, received emotional support, and psychological health in the first 2 weeks of December 2001. The results indicate that received emotional support moderated the relationship between goal disruption and depression and somatic symptoms. These findings suggest that the provision of emotional support should be understood as a fundamental communication skill relevant to recovery from disaster events. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)

Two important defensive mechanisms available to governments combating terrorism are warnings and the deployment of physical resources. Warnings are relatively inexpensive to issue but their effectiveness suffers from false alarms. Physical deployments of trained security personnel can directly thwart attacks but are expensive and need to be targeted to specific locations. In this paper, we model the joint optimization of defenses against terrorist attacks based on warnings and physical deployments when there is uncertainty in the timing and location of attacks. We model both private warnings issued to security forces and public warnings broadcast to the general public. By structuring the trade-offs faced by decision makers in a formal way, we try to shed light on an important public policy problem. We show that the interaction between the use of warnings and physical defenses is complex and significant. For public warnings, we also model the possible response of terrorists and show how these responses influence the effectiveness of such warnings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)

Terrorism significantly and persistently affects a small percentage of both directly and non-directly exposed individuals. Despite relative mental health resilience and fast recovery, heightened autonomic arousal and reactivity in victims of terrorism may persist for years after the event. However, current knowledge of how best to identify at-risk victims and how and when to intervene to reduce or prevent the development of posttraumatic psychopathology is limited. More research is needed to inform public health policy and to guide efficient identification and treatment efforts following terrorist attacks. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)

The present study examined the help-seeking characteristics of callers to the ten Israeli hotline centers during the Intifada - the Palestinian uprising in the Israeli administered territories. The research method combined quantitative and qualitative analyses of the volunteers' written reports. The quantitative analysis was conducted on a sample of 21,315 structured forms, and the qualitative content analysis was carried out on a sample of 498 verbal descriptions of calls. The quantitative analysis revealed a U-shaped curve illustrating the frequency of Intifada-related calls in relation to the time of the study. The qualitative analysis showed that the main complaints of the callers were focused on direct and masked manifestations of anxiety and feelings of helplessness. The implications of the findings are discussed in terms of understanding the unique psychological response to a new kind of stress, as seen from the perspective of calls to a hotline.

Comer and Kendall have provided an excellent review of what is known about the effects of terrorism on children. They have identified correlates, outcomes, and the many gaps in our current knowledge. The present comments focus on two main issues. First, there are many correlates and risk factors that predict deleterious outcomes following exposure to terrorist acts. Our field occasionally moves quickly to intervention work by altering malleable risk factors as if they played a causal role in the outcome or its amelioration. More work is needed to analyze these correlates and the precise role they play, if any, in the outcome. Second, in a relatively new area of research there are very many gaps in our knowledge. I discuss the need to prioritize and limit the focus of our studies. Priorities highlighted include evaluating the similarities among natural and human-made disasters and evaluating mechanisms of action among correlates that might bear an important role in child outcomes. Apart from the consequences of terrorist acts on children and families, our field must turn to the broader issue. What can our science do alone and in conjunction with other fields to understand and combat the precursors and origins of terrorism? Theory will be wonderful but we will need to have this grounded or tested to ensure we move beyond reasonable ideas or a lavish buffet of untestable interpretations. [Author Abstract] KEY WORDS: cautions in interpreting research; research priorities; terrorism