Mental health service use 1-year after the World Trade Center disaster: implications for mental health care

The objective of this study was to assess prevalence and predictors of mental health service use in New York City (NYC) after the World Trade Center disaster (WTCD). One year after the attacks, we conducted a community survey by telephone of 2368 adults living in NYC on September 11, 2001. In the past year, 19.99% (95% confidence interval [CI]=18.2–21.77) of New Yorkers had mental health visits and 8.1% (95% CI=7.04–9.16) used psychotropic medications. In addition, 12.88% (95% CI=11.51–14.25) reported one or more visits were related to the WTCD. Compared to the year before, 8.57% (95% CI=7.36–9.79) had increased post-disaster visits and 5.28% (95% CI=4.32–6.25) had new post-disaster treatment episodes. Psychotropic medication use related to the WTCD was 4.51% (95% CI=3.75–5.26). Increased post-disaster medication use, compared to the year before, was 4.11% (95% CI=3.35–4.86) and new medication episodes occurred among 3.01% (95% CI=2.34–3.69). In multivariate logistic analyses, mental health visits were associated with younger age, peri-event panic attack, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression. In addition, WTCD-related visits had a positive “dose-response” association with WTCD event exposures ( P