Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Disaster Behavioral Health: Psychological Effects of the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant Accident

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Radiation Disaster Medicine

Abstract

We reviewed studies regarding the mental health problems of the people who were directly affected by the past three severe nuclear accidents: the Three Mile Island accident, the Chernobyl accident, and the Tokaimura accident. These events brought us many lessons on complicated and long-term sociopsychological effects of the people who met with a nuclear accident. The Fukushima nuclear power plant accident also caused multidimensional behavioral problems of the residents in Fukushima. The various sociopsychological reactions among the Fukushima people can be summarized within five main issues: posttraumatic stress response, chronic anxiety and guilt, ambiguous loss, separated families and communities, and stigma. We should provide the effective intervention to mitigate mothers’ anxieties and guilty feelings, dispel the stigma against the Fukushima people, and prevent exhaustion or burnout of the local staff.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 139.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Asukai N, Kato H, Kawamura N, Kim Y, Yamamoto K, Kishimoto J, Miyake Y, Nishizono-Maher A (2002) Reliability and validity of the Japanese-language version of the impact of event scale-revised (IES-R-J): four studies of different traumatic events. J Nerv Ment Dis 190(3):175–182

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Boss P (1999) Ambiguous loss: learning to live with unresolved grief. Harvard University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Bromet EJ, Havenaar JM (2007) Psychological and perceived health effects of the Chernobyl disaster: a 20-year review. Health Phys 93(5):516–521

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bromet EJ, Parkinson DK, Schulberg HC, Dunn LO, Gondek PC (1982) Mental health of residents near the Three Mile Island reactor: a comparative study of selected groups. J Prev Psychiatry 1:225–275

    Google Scholar 

  • Bromet EJ, Havenaar JM, Guey LT (2011) A 25 year retrospective review of the psychological consequences of the Chernobyl accident. Clin Oncol (R Coll Radiol) 23:297–305

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Christodouleas JP, Forrest RD, Ainsley CG, Tochner Z, Hahn SM, Glatstein E (2011) Short-term and long-term health risks of nuclear-power-plant accidents. N Engl J Med 364:2334–2341

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Corrigan PW, Watson AC, Barr L (2006) The self–stigma of mental illness: implications for self–esteem and self–efficacy. J Soc Clin Psychol 25(8):875–884

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dew MA, Bromet EJ (1993) Predictors of temporal patterns of psychiatric distress during 10 years following the nuclear accident at Three Mile Island. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol 28:49–55

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Fienberg SE, Bromet EJ, Follmann D, Lambert D, May SM (1985) Longitudinal analysis of categorical epidemiological data: a study of Three Mile Island. Environ Health Perspect 63:241–248

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Glionna JM (2012) A year after tsunami, a cloud of distrust hangs over Japan: the Fukushima nuclear disaster has left residents doubting their government, their source of energy, even the food they eat. Los Angeles Times, 11 March. http://articles.latimes.com/2012/mar/11/world/la-fg-japan-quake-trust-20120311. Accessed 20 June 2013

  • International Atomic Energy Agency (1999) Report on the preliminary fact finding mission following the accident at the nuclear fuel processing facility in Tokaimura, Japan. IAEA, Vienna

    Google Scholar 

  • Kasl SV, Chisholm RF, Eskenazi B (1981a) The impact of the accident at the Three Mile Island on the behavior and well-being of nuclear workers; part I: perceptions and evaluations, behavioral responses, and work-related attitudes and feelings. Am J Public Health 71(5):472–483

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kasl SV, Chisholm RF, Eskenazi B (1981b) The impact of the accident at the Three Mile Island on the behavior and well-being of nuclear workers; part II: job tension, psychophysiological symptoms, and indices of distress. Am J Public Health 71:484–495

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kessler RC, Borges B, Walters EE et al (1999) Prevalence and risk factors of lifetime suicide attempts in the National Comorbidity Survey. Arch Gen Psychiatry 56:617–626

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kitajo T (2011) Effects of Fukushima nuclear accident on children in Fukushima. Nishoikaiho 42:119–121

    Google Scholar 

  • Konishi T, Inamoto E (1999) The impacts of the residents near Tokaimura on the mental health consultations after the nuclear accident. In: Yoshikawa T (ed) Health and labour sciences research grant report: PTSD research of residents after the disasters. pp 10–18. http://mhlw-grants.niph.go.jp/niph/search/NIDD00.do?resrchNum=199900066A

  • Kyutoku Y, Tada R, Umeyama T, Harada K, Kikuchi S, Watanabe E, Liegey-Dougall A, Dan I (2012) Cognitive and psychological reactions of the general population three months after the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. Plos One 7(2):e31014

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Loganovsky K, Havenaar JM, Tintle NL, Guey LT, Kotov R, Bromet EJ (2008) The mental health of clean-up workers 18 years after the Chernobyl accident. Psychol Med 38:481–488

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Maeda M (2012) Difficulties of the staff working at Hibarigaoka Psychiatric Hospital in Minami-Soma. Rinsho-seishinigaku 41:1183–1191

    Google Scholar 

  • Miura I, Wada A, Itagaki S, Yabe H, Niwa S (2012) Relationship between psychological distress and anxiety/depression following great east Japan earthquake in Fukushima Prefecture. Rinsho-seishinigaku 41:1137–1142

    Google Scholar 

  • Norris FH, Friedman MJ, Watson PJ, Byrne CM, Diaz E, Kaniasty K (2002a) 60,000 disaster victims speak: part I. An empirical review of the empirical literature, 1981–2001. Psychiatry 65(3):207–239

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Norris FH, Friedman MJ, Watson PJ (2002b) 60,000 disaster victims speak: part II. Summary and implications of the disaster mental health research. Psychiatry 65(3):240–260

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • President’s Commission on the accident at Three Mile Island (1979) The need for change, the legacy of TMI: report of the President’s Commission on the accident at Three Mile Island. US Government Printing Office, Washington, DC

    Google Scholar 

  • Prince-Embury S, Rooney JF (1995) Psychological adaptation among residents following restart of Three Mile Island. J Trauma Stress 8(1):47–59

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Rahu K, Rahu M, Tekkel M, Bromet E (2006) Suicide risk among Chernobyl cleanup workers in Estonia still increased: an updated cohort study. Ann Epidemiol 16(12):917–919

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Raphael B (1986) When disaster strikes: how individuals and communities cope with catastrophe. Basic Books, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Save the Children (2012) Fukushima families: children and families affected by Fukushima’s nuclear crisis share their concerns one year on. http://www.savethechildren.org/atf/cf/%7B9def2ebe-10ae-432c-9bd0-df91d2eba74a%7D/JAPAN_FUKUSHIMA_FAMILIES_REPORT.PDF. Accessed 25 June 2013

  • Shigemura J, Tanigawa T, Saito I, Nomura S (2012) Psychological distress in workers at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plants. JAMA 308(7):667–669

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Taormina DP, Rozenblatt S, Guey LT, Gluzman SF, Carlson GA, Havenaar JM, Zakhozha V, Kotov R, Bromet EJ (2008) The Chernobyl accident and cognitive functioning: a follow-up study of infant evacuees at age 19 years. Psychol Med 38(4):489–497

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • The Chernobyl Forum (2006) Chernobyl’s Legacy: health, environmental and socio-economic impacts and recommendations to the Governments of Belarus, the Russian Federation and Ukraine, 2003–2005. pp. 10–11, IAEA, Vienna. http://www.iaea.org/Publications/Booklets/Chernobyl/chernobyl.pdf. Accessed 1 July 2013

  • Tomita N, Nakajima S (1999) Mental health of the affected residents. In: Yoshikawa T (ed) Health and labour sciences research grant report: PTSD research of residents after the disasters. http://mhlw-grants.niph.go.jp/niph/search/NIDD00.do?resrchNum=199900066A

  • World Health Organization Report (2013) Health risk assessment from the nuclear accident after the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami based on a preliminary dose estimation. World Health Organization Report, Geneva. http://www.who.int/ionizing_radiation/chernobyl/WHO%20Report%20on%20Chernobyl%20Health%20Effects%20July%2006.pdf

  • Yamada M, Izumi S (2002) Psychiatric sequelae in atomic bomb survivors in Hiroshima and Nagasaki two decades after the explosions. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol 37(9):409–415

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neuropsychiatry, School of Medicine, Kurume University, Fukuoka, Japan

    Masaharu Maeda M.D., Ph.D. & Misari Oe M.D., Ph.D.

  2. Department of Disaster Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Fukushima Medical University, Fukushima, Japan

    Masaharu Maeda M.D., Ph.D.

  3. Division of Health Services, Institute of Health and Sports Science, Kurume University, Fukuoka, Japan

    Misari Oe M.D., Ph.D.

Authors
  1. Masaharu Maeda M.D., Ph.D.
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Misari Oe M.D., Ph.D.
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Masaharu Maeda M.D., Ph.D. .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept of Emergency and Critical Care, Hiroshima University, Hiroshima, Japan

    Koichi Tanigawa

  2. Division of Human Health, International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna, Austria

    Rethy Kieth Chhem

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2014 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Maeda, M., Oe, M. (2014). Disaster Behavioral Health: Psychological Effects of the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant Accident. In: Tanigawa, K., Chhem, R. (eds) Radiation Disaster Medicine. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02216-1_4

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02216-1_4

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-02215-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-02216-1

  • eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation