OCCURRENCE OF MENTAL DISORDERS IN POPULATION AFFECTED BY RADIATION ACCIDENT: STRUCTURE, DYNAMICS, RISK FACTORS

Abstract

The problem of damage to mental health of individuals born after theChernobylaccident remains of high interest, especially in the regions which have been subjected to significant contamination as a result of the accident. The article analyzes the dynamics of psychiatric morbidity in population of contaminated and non-contaminated areas of theBryanskregion according to state statistics and to files of neuropsychiatric ambulatory institutions. The incidence rates in the contaminated areas are found to be significantly different from those in the non-contaminated areas. Dynamics of mentally handicapped contingents after the radiation accident depends, at different stages of postaccidental situation, on a complex of factors: social, economic, radiation, and general toxic ones, which once again underlines the general social character of such disasters.

Keywords

• radiation accident
• mental illness
• morbidity