the evolving mind

Good science is specific and accurate. Some recent psychological research seems not-so-good in that regard. Though the topic is important. Under the headline, Study shows serious emotional disturbances among children after Katrina, I learned -

A team made up of mental health professionals, emergency response experts, and researchers from several universities, including Virginia Tech, has published the results of a study that shows serious emotional disturbances among children who were affected by Hurricane Katrina.

Is “a team” of data-collectors from various fields better than, say, a couplet of highly specialized scientists? Sure, a team may be better for generating a greater quantity of data. But what about the quality?

What qualified as “serious emotional disorders” (SED)? Good question.

Characteristics of SED include inappropriate behavior, depression, hyperactivity, eating disorders, fears and phobias, and learning difficulties.

Oh lard. What a laundry list. Not very specific, to say the least. With a lasso that large (and potentially fraught with subjective interpretation), the data-collecting-cowboys may have caught more than should have been caught.

So what, precisely, did they find? Fortunately, some precision in the findings is presented. They give us hard numbers. Kudos for that.

the estimated prevalence of serious emotional disturbances (SED) among residents of the affected areas was 14.9 percent. Of those, 9.3 percent of youths were believed to have SED that was directly attributable to Hurricane Katrina.

Of course, the message that will be drawn from this is likely to be: Children are vulnerable and can be harmed by traumas such as natural disasters. And there is likely a bit of truth to this.

But wait a minute. What about this conclusion: Children are remarkably resilient in the wake of profound trauma? Less than one in ten, after all, qualified as having one of the laundry-list emotional disturbances. And the children actually faired better than the adults!

A member of the research team said this:

“The prevalence of SED among youths exposed to Hurricane Katrina remains high 18 to 27 months after the storm,” Jones said. “This suggests a substantial need for mental health treatment resources in the hurricane-affected areas.”

Suggests indeed. But, again, wait a minute. Is Jones assuming that, given the problem, “mental health treatment resources” would actually accomplish something? Careful scientists don’t make such assumptions.

And there is reason to doubt that assumption. One day prior to reading the above I came across the following science news release and finding:

No evidence to support psychological debriefing in schools

Recent systematic reviews indicate that psychological debriefing of adults does not prevent post-traumatic stress disorder and it may even increase the risk of this disorder.

So before we rush in to help, we should attempt to honestly determine if our attempts to help will actually accomplish something.

Technorati Links: psychology, trauma

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