Risk of posttraumatic stress disorder and depression in survivors of the floods in Bihar, India.

Background: Following a natural disaster, survivors are vulnerable to develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and/ or depression. Objectives: (i) To screen survivors of the Bihar floods a month after the event to determine their scores in a screening questionnaire for PTSD and/ or depression and (ii) to correlate these scores with age and gender. Materials and Methods: One thousand two hundred eighty-nine persons (645 females) who had been directly exposed to the floods in Bihar, India, in August 2008 were assessed. The Screening Questionnaire for Disaster Mental Health (SQD) was used to screen for PTSD and depression. Statistical Analysis: Separate two-factor ANOVAs were used to compare persons of both sexes and 5 different age groups for PTSD and depression scores. This was followed by post-hoc analysis for multiple comparisons. Results: People over the age of 60 years had significantly higher scores for PTSD and depression compared to all groups (P< 0.05 for all comparisons). Conclusion: Following a natural disaster, older people appear more vulnerable to develop PTSD and depression. This should be taken into account in devising strategies for disaster relief.

Immediate effects of right and left nostril breathing on verbal and spatial scores.

The immediate effect of two yoga breathing techniques was assessed on verbal and spatial memory tasks, considered hemisphere-specific. Forty-five participants (24 males; age range 20 to 45 years (mean age 27.1 +/- 8.1 years) were randomly allocated to three groups (n = 15 each) and were assessed immediately before and after 45 minutes of three breathing practices i.e., right nostril yoga breathing, left nostril yoga breathing, or breath awareness as a control intervention. Spatial memory scores increased after left nostril yoga breathing compared to before (by 16 percent, P = 0.03, paired t-test). Hence, breathing through the left nostril increased performance in a spatial cognitive task, corresponding to the cerebral hemisphere contralateral to the patent nostril.