Abstract

Kahramanmaraş earthquakes occurred on 6 February 2023, and many people died and were trapped under the rubble. The objective of this research was to investigate child victims of the quake, who were most dramatically affected, required intensive care and were trapped under debris/rubble/wreckage in terms of psychiatric status and the disaster-related or personal determinants of psychopathologies. Pediatric patients (n=77) who were hospitalized in intensive care units and inpatient wards within the first month after the earthquake and were consulted to the Child Psychiatry, were examined in terms of psychiatric symptoms, use of psychotropics, duration under debris, loss of relatives, loss of limbs, and intensive care requirement. Anhedonia, loss of appetite, psychosomatic and dissociative symptoms, as well as psychotropic need/use were significantly higher in patients who required intensive care. Dissociative and psychosomatic symptoms were linked with longer durations under debris. The current findings highlight prominent and predominated psychiatric symptoms in child victims of quakes, hospitalized in intensive care units and being prolonged trapped under debris. Prolonged entrapment correlated with increased dissociative and psychosomatic symptoms, emphasizing the need for targeted psychiatric support for vulnerable earthquake survivors.

Key words: Earthquake, child and adolescent psychiatry, intensive care unit, under the debris