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Grant Awarded to Study Terrorism's Impact on Mental Health

A four-year $2.25 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health has been awarded to the Summa Health System-Kent State University Center for the Treatment and Study of Traumatic Stress and the University of Haifa’s Center for National Security Studies to examine the impact of terrorism.

The study aims to reveal important lessons about people’s vulnerability and resiliency in the face of a terrorist attack.

Dr. Stevan Hobfoll, distinguished professor of psychology at Kent State, is director of the Summa-Kent State Center for the Treatment and Study of Traumatic Stress, which has received a $2.25 million grant to study the effects of terrorism on mental health. Photo by Bob Christy

Focusing on the nation of Israel and its citizens, the study will be conducted in three parts: 1) a series of cross-sectional polling (Jews and Arabs) of mental health during a three-year period; 2) an analysis of 1,500 Israelis over a multi-year period to determine how terrorism affects their mental health; and 3) a small-scale clinical review of 100-150 Jews and Arabs conducted with in-depth clinical interviews.

“This study represents the largest prospective examination of how people are impacted by ongoing terrorism, and its findings will have important implications for the mental health not only of Israelis, but for people around the world,“ says Dr. Stevan Hobfoll, distinguished professor of psychology and director, Summa-Kent State Center for the Treatment and Study of Traumatic Stress. “Summa Health System, Kent State University and the University of Haifa are all to be commended for earning this grant.”

The mission of the Center for the Treatment and Study of Traumatic Stress is to develop and conduct a center of excellence at Summa Health System’s Department of Psychiatry in conjunction with Kent State. The center is dedicated to the treatment and investigation of traumatic stress and its consequences. Through its work, the center will have regional, national and international impact in advancing the science of traumatic stress and the well-being of people affected by traumatic events.

The study has multiple goals, including understanding the psychological impact of ongoing terrorism on post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression; studying the role of defensive coping responses, such as ethnic or religious prejudice and advocacy of extreme political violence; and examining vulnerability factors, geographical proximity, social proximity and acclimation to severe attacks.

“I look forward to participating in this study because of the potential positive impact its outcome can have on people throughout the world,” says Joseph Varley, M.D., chair of Summa’s Department of Psychiatry. “We continue to see events that impact the mental health of many innocent people. However, through this study, there is hope that we will discover new means to help those in need cope with the events surrounding them.”

The study is being led at the Summa-Kent State Center for the Treatment and Study of Traumatic Stress by Hobfoll and Varley. Daphna Canetti-Nisim, Ph.D., and Gabriel Ben-Dor, Ph.D., head the program at Haifa’s Center for National Security Studies.