One in 10 caught up in terror attacks likely to suffer PTSD a decade later

At least one in ten of those caught up in the recent terror attacks may still be suffering post-traumatic stress a decade later, a report in the Lancet suggests.

Emergency medicine doctors warned that substantial impairments in everyday functioning should be expected among direct victims, families and paramedics who arrived at such scenes.

And they called for efforts to protect hospitals from attack, with healthcare facilities “no longer sanctuaries but soft targets for terrorists”.

The review by French experts in emergency medicine examined the response of medical authorities to the terror attacks in Paris and Nice, and wider research into the impact of such incidents.

Its authors warned that many of those caught up in such attacks can expect to suffer long-term consquences, in some cases for life.

Mental health services needed to be prepared for a “continuous flow of patients” in the months after an attack, medics warned.

“One third of people involved either as direct victims, their families, or the first responders are likely to develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD),” said study author, Professor Pierre Carli, of SAMU de Paris.

“Among those who develop PTSD, one third of them fail to recover after 10 years, causing substantial impairments in everyday functioning and quality of life,” he warned.

The Paris terror attack in November 2015, and the Nice attack last July between them saw 137 people killed and 413 injured.

Prof Carli said french authorities had improved efforts to accurately identify victims of terrorism.

But he said global efforts to respond to the terrorist threat would need facing the fact hospitals themselves could become places of danger.

"Protecting hospitals against an attack is also a new challenge for health-care authorities,” he wrote, highlighting attacks in Syria. "Health-care facilities are no longer sanctuaries but soft targets for terrorists.”