Abstract
This study sought to explore factors related to community transition after the mandatory evacuation of psychiatric inpatients to other hospitals owing to the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident. A retrospective cohort design was adopted and 391 psychiatric patients were examined. Univariate and multivariate analyses were conducted to confirm the association between the achievement or non-achievement of discharge to community living and their backgrounds (age, gender, evacuation destination, psychiatric diagnoses, and physical complications). Multivariate analysis indicated that patients with psychiatric diagnoses of schizophrenia, schizotypal, and delusional disorders (International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems 10th revision, F20–29), and those with physical diagnoses of the circulatory (I00–95) and digestive (K00–93) systems showed a significant association with the non-attainment of community transition. From these results, we hypothesized that difficulties in the management of medication during and immediately after the extremely chaotic settings of evacuation could have negative effects on the community transitions. Furthermore, another possible concern was that individuals’ persistent psychotic status before the accident had been carried over to the destination hospitals. Therefore, pre-disaster daily cooperation across hospitals and challenges for vulnerable psychiatric patients’ future community lives are also essential.
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Acknowledgements
The authors express their gratitude to Ms. Tomoko ENDO and Ms. Kasumi NEMOTO (Fukushima Prefectural Government) for providing the data used in this study. Furthermore, we would like to thank Editage (www.editage.com) for English language editing.
Funding
The research was financially supported by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology of Japan. This study was funded by a Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research (Grant Number 17K19826).
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Terui, T., Kunii, Y., Hoshino, H. et al. Post-Disaster Community Transition of Psychiatric Inpatients: Lessons from the Fukushima Nuclear Accident. Community Ment Health J 60, 764–771 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-024-01232-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-024-01232-3