Author(s)

Masaki Hisamura¹, Arinobu Hori², Akira Wada³, Itaru Miura³, Hiroshi Hoshino³, Shuntaro Itagaki³, Yasuto Kunii³, Junya Matsumoto³, Hirobumi Mashiko³, Craig Katz⁴, Shin-Ichi Niwa⁵

¹Department of Emergency Medicine Saitama Medical Center, Saitama Medical University, Saitama, Japan.
²Department of Disaster and Comprehensive Medicine, Fukushima Medical University, Fukushima, Japan.
³Department of Neuropsychiatry, Fukushima Medical University, Fukushima, Japan.
⁴Departments of Psychiatry and Medical Education, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, USA.
⁵Department of Psychiatry, Aizu Medical Center, Fukushima Medical University, Fukushima, Japan.

Background: After the March 2011 “triple” disaster in Japan, the residents of Fukushima Prefecture suffered from serious psychological stress. Aims: This study aimed to elucidate the influence of stressful conditions on psychiatric disorders, as reflected in new psychiatric admissions. Methods: Diagnoses and background conditions among new psychiatric admissions during the 3 months immediately after the disaster in 2011 and the corresponding time periods of 2010 and 2012 were surveyed. Results: In 2011, more patients were admitted in confusional, manic, neurasthenic, and delirious states, whereas there were fewer admissions for depression. In 2012, more admissions pertained to depression. Twenty-four percent of the new admissions in 2011 were associated with concerns about radiation contamination and hospitalization, which declined to 4% in 2012. Conclusions: The diagnoses and background conditions among new psychiatric admissions were affected by the disaster; with the influence differing according to the time elapsed after the disaster.

Depression, Fear of Radiation, Fukushima Disaster, Manic State, Psychiatric Inpatients

Hisamura, M. , Hori, A. , Wada, A. , Miura, I. , Hoshino, H. , Itagaki, S. , Kunii, Y. , Matsumoto, J. , Mashiko, H. , Katz, C. and Niwa, S. (2017) Newly Admitted Psychiatric Inpatients after the 3.11 Disaster in Fukushima, Japan. Open Journal of Psychiatry, 7, 131-146. doi: 10.4236/ojpsych.2017.73013.