New Orleans doctors are still treating people suffering from psychological trauma caused by Hurricane Katrina, according to a report in Politico.
More than 7,000 patients receive care for mental and behavioral health conditions just from the Jefferson Parish Human Services Authority, a state-run mental health clinic in Marrero.
At least 90% of the patients lived through Katrina and many still suffer from storm-related disorders, says chief psychiatrist Thomas Hauth, who adds he and most of his fellow clinicians also suffer from some level of long-term anxiety from the storm.
In the aftermath of Katrina, many survivors struggled with short-term memory loss and cognitive impairment, a syndrome dubbed “Katrina brain,” according to a report by Ken Sakauye, a University of Tennessee professor of psychiatry who was at LSU at the time.
But experts say the long-term mental health effects of extreme weather events like Katrina are a hidden public health epidemic—one that is expected to strain the U.S. health care system as the intensity and frequency of hurricanes and other disasters increase in coming decades.
