Psychological morbidity in children 18 months after Kashmir Earthquake of 2005.

A severe earthquake occurred in Kashmir in 2005. The epicentre was close to Muzzafarabad. We collected data on over 1,100 children 18 months after the earthquake to look at symptoms of PTSD and behavioural and emotional problems using well established questionnaires. We found that 64.8% of children had significant symptoms of PTSD. Girls were more likely to suffer from these symptoms. The proportion of children suffering from emotional and behaviour difficulties was 34.6%. This percentage was not different from other studies of children from Pakistan within areas which were not affected by the earthquake. The rate of emotional symptoms was higher in girls while hyperactivity was more frequent in boys. This pattern is similar to other studies from across the world.