Beirut explosion has left its mark on residents' mental health
Audio 01:32
Nurses from Saint George's Hospital in Beirut clean a room damaged by the blast.
PATRICK BAZ / AFP
Text by: RFI Follow
4 min
On August 4, a double explosion ravaged Beirut.
According to the latest accounts, the tragedy would have left more than 5,000 injured, but this figure only includes the physical injuries.
No report has yet identified the psychological victims of the explosion.
Anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress ... Lebanese psychiatrists warn of the various pathologies with which thousands of Beirutis have been facing since the disaster.
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With our correspondent in Beirut,
Noé Pignède
It is a huge white tent pitched in front of Saint George Hospital.
A makeshift hospital, installed in an emergency just after the explosion of August 4, which partially destroyed the building.
After having requested the consent of a patient, a psychiatrist allows us to attend a consultation in the psychiatric emergency room.
Like most of the Beirutis who have visited the center in recent weeks, he has suffered from psychiatric disorders since the explosion.
“
My problem is mostly the noise.
I hear noises, even if it's improving a bit, he
explains.
These are not voices, these are noises that disturb me
”.
Trauma rekindled by the explosion
"
When you hear an object breaking, or the noise of an exhaust, does that scare you?
», Asks psychiatrist Léa Aoudé.
“
It's going a little better than before, but still yes,”
his patient replies.
You know, in my neighborhood, everything was destroyed.
We were in a rain of glass.
There was blood everywhere.
We almost went there
”.
Every day, Doctor Aoudé receives dozens of the victims of the August 4 explosion.
But in this country marked by war, the drama also rekindles the traumas of the past.
“
I had a very interesting case today.
A 75-year-old woman, who has never been diagnosed with a psychiatric pathology… But since the explosion of the port, she relives the Lebanese civil war through flashbacks and nightmares,
”she explains.
Anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress ... For this psychiatrist who herself lost her home in the explosion, the drama of August 4 will have lasting consequences on the mental health of the Lebanese.
►To listen:
Explosion in Lebanon: a trauma that goes far beyond the human toll
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Lebanon
Health and medicine
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