Fear of radiation from Fukushima accident led to psychiatric disorder hospitalizations via The Mainichi Daily News

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Wada and others at Fukushima Medical University carried out a survey at 30 hospitals in Fukushima Prefecture for two months from March 12, 2011, and 27 of them responded to the survey.

Of the 610 inpatients who were admitted or readmitted to hospital, with men accounting for 49 percent and women for 51 percent, excluding those who were transferred to other hospitals because of the nuclear disaster, 74 of them, or 12.1 percent, were diagnosed as being related to their fears of radiation exposure, while 75 others, or 12.3 percent, were diagnosed as being possibly related to their fears of radiation exposure. People from the Soma, Futaba and Iwaki areas, which are close to the troubled nuclear power station, account for 23 to 27 percent of such inpatients.

Of all the 74 inpatients whose hospitalization was diagnosed as being related to their fears of radiation exposure, nine of them had never had consulted psychiatrists before. Most of the 74 people were admitted or readmitted to hospital within one month from the outbreak of the nuclear disaster, and nearly half of them were in their 40s and 50s. There were cases of people who were suffering from stress from living in evacuation centers in addition to their fears of radiation exposure.

At the same time, Itaru Miura, assistant professor at Fukushima Medical University, and others conducted a survey on outpatients at 77 hospitals and clinics in Fukushima Prefecture once a week for three months from March 12, 2011, to which 57 medical facilities responded.

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