by JORDAN LITE
Ground Zero workers suffered from high rates of depression, posttraumatic stress and alcohol abuse as many as five years after the 9/11 attacks, doctors reported Tuesday.
About 11% of the workers - all patients at a monitoring and treatment program at Mount Sinai Medical Center - had posttraumatic stress disorder in the first five years after the 2001 attacks. That's comparable to rates in soldiers who served in Afghanistan.
"This was a terrible disaster, and it was very stressful during the months of the rescue, recovery and cleanup," said Dr. Dennis Charney, a psychiatrist and dean of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. "That says a lot when it's about the same as soldiers coming back from Afghanistan."
The stress disorder - marked by constant edginess, problems sleeping, nightmares, anxiety, depression and emotional numbness - affects 3% to 4% of the U.S. population.
Nearly half of the 10,000 workers at Ground Zero who didn't have full-blown posttraumatic stress disorder had symptoms of the condition. About 17% had probable alcohol abuse problems.
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