Study: 1 in 8 Ground Zero workers had post-traumatic stress

Study: 1 in 8 Ground Zero workers had post-traumatic stress
BY CARL MACGOWAN carl.macgowan@newsday.com
7:27 PM EDT, August 29, 2007

One in eight recovery and rescue workers who helped with the months-long cleanup at the World Trade Center showed signs of post-traumatic stress disorder three years after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, a study has found.Workers with little or no prior experience with disasters showed the highest frequency of PTSD, said the study, published Wednesday in the American Journal of Psychiatry. The data come from the World Trade Center Health Registry's survey of 28,000 workers in 2003 and 2004.The survey found that 12.4 percent of workers likely had PTSD, an anxiety disorder caused by traumatic events such as war, terrorism or assault. Nationally, about 4 percent of the population has PTSD, the report said.

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