Psychology
2013. Vol.4, No.2, 106-110
Published Online February 2013 in SciRes
(http://www.scirp.org/journal/psych) http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/psych.2013.42015
106
PTSD Score, Circadian Typology and Sleep Habits of People who
Experienced the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake 17 Years Ago
Hiroko Kuroda, Kai Wada, Hitomi Takeuchi, Tetsuo Harada*
Laboratory of Environmental Physiology, Graduate School of Integrated Arts and Sciences,
Kochi University, Kochi, Japan
*
Received September 4th, 2012; revised October 10th, 2012; accepted November 19th, 2012
This study aims to determine the relationship between Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and current
circadian typology and sleep habits of adults who experienced the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake (on
17th January 1995) after becoming adults. An integrated questionnaire was administered in August, 2011
to 467 people aged 38 - 92 (mean age: 64.8 years) in Hyogo Prefecture, Japan, with responses received
from 223 people (females: 142, males: 78, unknown: 3). The questionnaire consisted of basic questions
about attributes such as age and sex, questions on sleep habits and sleep quality (Subjective Sleep Quality
Scale), the Torsvall-Åkerstedt Diurnal Type Scale and the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R) which
dealt with PTSD scores. The participants were divided into a High Damage Group (HDG) and Low
Damage Group (LDG) based on public statistical information on the extent of damage to buildings and
number of casualties in the smaller districts of Kobe City in which participants experienced the disaster.
HDG participants exhibited significantly higher IES-R scores than LDG participants (p = .002). Only in
HDG participants, there was significantly negative correlation between Diurnal-Type scale scores and
IES-R scores (high PTSD scores correlated with greater evening type [low scores of Diurnal-Type scale])
(p = .001) (p = .920 in LDG participants). In both the HDG and LDG, there was a significant positive
correlation between the Subjective Sleep Quality Scale (higher score meaning lower sleep quality) and
IES-R score (high PTSD scores correlated with low quality of sleep) (p < .001 in HDG; p = .001 in LDG).
These results suggest that people who suffered severe damage from a disaster and who currently show
severe PTSD symptoms are more evening-typed and have a lower quality of sleep. Intervention to im-
prove their quality of sleep and promote a morning-typed lifestyle may be an effective way to reduce
PTSD symptoms.
Keywords: PTSD; Intrusion; Hyper-Arousal; Avoidance-Numbing; The Impact of Event Scale-Revised
(IES-R); Current Circadian Typology
Introduction
A tremendous number of studies have been reported on Post-
traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), especially in the last decade.
Disasters and PTSD
An epidemiological study was performed on a total of 271
adolescents who had been evacuated from their homes 3
months after Typhoon Morakot in Taiwan (Young et al., 2011).
The prevalence of PTSD related to the typhoon was 25.8% and
adolescents with PTSD had more severe depression and inter-
nalizing, externalizing, social, thought and attention problems
than those without PTSD (Young et al., 2011). Even 4 years
after the Parnitha earthquake in Greece, 22% of survivors re-
ported subjective distress and intense fear during the earthquake
and participation in rescue operations positively correlated with
greater post-earthquake psychological stress (Livanou et al.,
2004). The psychological consequence of earthquakes may be
serious and long-lasting even when the magnitude of the earth-
quake is moderate (Livanou et al., 2004).
At .5 and 3 years after a severe earthquake (7.3 on the
Richter scale) in Taiwan, the estimated rate of victims with
posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) was 23.8% and 4.4%,
respectively, and PTSS scores were tightly correlated with
QOL scores (with less severe symptoms linking to higher QOL)
(Tsai et al., 2007).
PTSD Related to Combat and Violence
In 20 Vietnam veterans diagnosed with combat-related PTSD,
urine collections in three 8 hours (8:00-16:00, 16:00-24:00,
24:00-8:00) to measure catecholamine levels showed that
noradolenergic activity was undiminished at night and sleep
was disturbed in comparison with 8 non-combat-exposed con-
trols (Mellman et al., 1995). In the case of victims of violent
crimes with PTSD, posttraumatic nightmares and insomnia
improved and daytime PTSD symptom severity was reduced
after a single, 90 min intervention which used cognitive-be-
havioral techniques aimed at reducing post-traumatic night-
mares and insomnia (Germain et al., 2007).
Circadian Typology and Sleep Habits
Morningness-Eveningness preference shows the phase rela-
tionship of circadian clocks to the environmental zeitgebers and
*Corresponding author.

H. KURODA ET AL.
can be an appropriate indicator of circadian phase in human
circadian clocks in ordinary life (Ishihara, 1991; Harada, 2008).
In general, evening-typed diurnal rhythms are linked to the
shortage of sleep due to late bedtimes and also poor quality of
sleep (Macacci & Zani, 1983; Hayashi & Hori, 1987; Tanaka et
al., 1997; Ishihara et al., 1988; Harada & Takeuchi, 2001; Ha-
rada & Takeuchi, 2011).
PTSD, Sleep Disturbance and Circadian Typology
Sleep disturbance is one of 4 factors indicating PTSD symp-
toms as assessed by the Impact Event Scale-Revised (IES-R)
and the main symptom exhibited in PTSD (Germain et al., 2005;
Mellman, 2008; Wang, 2011). However, there have been no
studies on the relationship between PTSD symptoms and cir-
cadian typology. This study tries to examine this relationship
from an epidemiological point of view.
Participants and Methods
Questionnaire Study
An integrated questionnaire was administered to 467 people
aged 38 - 92 (mean age: 64.8 years) in Hyogo Prefecture
(35˚N), Japan in August 2011, with responses received from
223 people (females: 142, males: 78, unknown: 3) which were
all usable for analysis. The questionnaire consisted of basic
questions about attributes such as age and sex, questions on
sleep habits and sleep quality (Subjective Sleep Quality Scale),
the Torsvall-Åkerstedt Diurnal Type Scale (1980) and a Japa-
nese version (Kasugai, 1998) of the Impact of Event Scale-
Revised (IES-R) which has been usually used as PTSD scores
(Wilson & Keane, 2004) composed of 22 questions, 8 questions
related to intrusion, 6 on hyper-arousal and 8 on avoidance-
numbing (Table 1). The original questions on sleep habits
which Harada et al. (1998) originally constructed have been
used in several papers (Takeuchi et al., 2001a; Takeuchi et al.,
2001b; Harada et al., 2002; Takeuchi et al., 2003; Harada et al.,
2004; Shinomiya et al., 2004; Harada et al., 2007).
Statistical Analysis
The data was statistically analyzed using Mann-Whitney
U-tests and Pearson’s correlation analysis with SPSS 20.0 sta-
tistical software. Diurnal Type scale scores were expressed as
means plus or minus the standard deviation (Mean ± SD).
Criterion for High and Low Damage Groups
Participants were divided into a High Damage Group (HDG)
and a Low Damage Group (LDG) based on public statistical
information on the extent of damage to buildings and number of
casualties in the smaller districts of Kobe City in which par-
ticipants experienced the disaster (Table 2). The criterion for
the HDG and LDG was more than 100 dead persons or more
than 1000 buildings collapsed completely. According to this
criterion, participants living in the 7 districts of Higashinada,
Nada, Chuo, Hyogo, Nagata, Suma and Tarumi were included
in HDG and those in Nishi and Kita were in the LDG (Table
2).
The study followed the guidelines established by the Chro-
nobiology International Journal for the conduct of research on
human subjects (Portaluppi et al., 2010). Before administrating
the questionnaires, each participant was given a written expla-
nation that detailed the concepts and purposes of the study and
stated that their answers would be used only for academic pur-
poses. After the above explanation, all participants agreed com-
pletely with the proposal. The study was also permitted by the
ethic committee in the Laboratory of Environmental Physiology,
Graduate School of Integrated Arts and Sciences, Kochi Uni-
versity which carried out an ethical inspection of the contents of
the questionnaire
Results
PTSD scores (21.9 points on average) were significantly
higher in the High Damage Group (HDG) than those (17.1) in
the Low Damage Group (LDG) (Mann-Whitney U-test: z =
−2.270, p = .02) (Figure 1). Scores of HDG participants tended
Table 1.
Examples of questions of the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R) (Wilson & Keane, 2004).
One example of 8 questio ns on avo id an c e- numb ing
Q: How extent do you avoid something to make you remember the disaster?
A: (0) Never, (1) a little, (2) medium, (3) much, (4) extreme
One example of 8 questions on intrusion
Q: How extent do something on the disaster appear suddenly in your brain?
A: (0) Never, (1) a little, (2) medium, (3) much, (4) extreme
One example of 6 questions on hyper-a r ousal
Q: Are you enough nervous to be in high tension triggered with a small thing?
A: (0) Never, (1) a little, (2) medium, (3) much, (4) extreme
Table 2.
Damage due to the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake (Kobe City Administrative Office, 1995). DP: Dead person; CCB: Completely
Collapsed Building; HCB: Half Collapsed Building; CBB: Completely Burned Building.
Districts Higashinada Nada Chuo Hyogo Nagata Suma Tarumi Nishi Kita Total
DP (n) 1471 933 244 555 919 401 25 11 12 4571
CCB (n) 13,687 12,757 6344 9533 15,521 7696 1176 436 271 67,421
HCB (n) 5538 5675 6641 8109 8282 5608 8890 3262 3140 55,145
CBB (n) 327 465 65 940 4759 407 1 0 1 6965

H. KURODA ET AL.
(P=.02)
HDGLDG
Figure 1.
Comparison of current (Aug 2011) PTSD scores of participants
of a High Damage Group (HDG) and a Low Damage Group
(LDG) of the Hanshin-Awaji Great Earthquake (Jan 1995).
to be higher in all three categories of intrusion, hyper-arousal
and avoidance-numbing than those of LDG participants (Mann-
Whitney U-test, intrusion: z = −2.304, p = .02; hyper-arousal: z
= −1.807, p < .01; avoidance-numbing: z = −2.752, p = .006).
The ratio of participants who showed 25 or more points was
34.8% in HDG and tended to be higher than the 24.5% in LDG
(χ2-test: df = 1, χ2-value = 2.443, p = .118).
Only in HDG participants, there was a significant negative
correlation between Diurnal-Type scale scores and IES-R scores
(high PTSD scores correlated with greater evening type [low
scores of Diurnal-Type scale]) (Pearson’s correlation test: r =
−.353, p = .001 in HDG; r = .010, p = .920 in LDG) (Figure 2).
In both HDG and LDG, there was a significantly positive cor-
relation between the Subjective Sleep Quality Scale (higher
score meaning lower sleep quality) and the IES-R scores
(higher PTSD scores correlated with lower quality of sleep) (r
= .536, p < .001 in HDG; r = .319, p = .001 in LDG) (Figure
3).
Discussion
Even 17 years after the Hanshin-Awaji Great Earthquake
(magnitude: 7.3), PTSD symptoms due to the earthquake re-
mains. People who suffered severe damage from a disaster and
who currently show severe PTSD symptoms are more eve-
ning-typed and have a lower quality of sleep. This study is the
first to indicate a positive correlation between evening-typed
lifestyle and PTSD symptoms (morning-type lifestyle and re-
duced PTSD symptoms).
What are the mechanisms underlying this relationship? Three
hypothetical pathways are possible. The first is that dreaming
during REM sleep consolidates the memorizing system in the
brain (Karni et al., 1994; Hornung et al., 2007) and may delete
the scarce memory of the earthquake. The second is via a high
amount of serotonin synthesis in the morning due to a rich-
protein breakfast (Harada et al., 2007; Nakade et al., 2009,
2012). Diminished 5-HT2A recepter signaling in the brain ap-
pears to be associated with the cognitive syndrome observed in
PTSD and certain subgroups of depressive illness (Van Praag,
2004a, 2004b). Therefore, a higher amount of serotonin synthe-
sis in the pineal gland could compensate, partially, the shortage
of 5-HT2A receptors.
PT
S
D
sco
r
e
(p=.001)
HDG
LDG
(p=.920)
Figure 2.
Negative correlation between current scores of Di-
urnal Type scale scores and PTSD scores which was
shown only for participants in a High Damage Group
(HDG) of the Hanshin-Awaji Great Earthquake even
after 17 years after the disaster.
↑ Worse
↓ Better
PTSDscore
(HDG:r=.536,p<.001;
HDG
LDG
LDG：r=.319,p=.001)
Figure 3.
Positive correlation between current values of poor quality sleep
scores and PTSD scores which was shown both for participants
in a High Damage Group (HDG) and those in a Low Damage
Group (LDG) of the Hanshin-Awaji Great Earthquake even after
17 years after the disaster.
The third possible mechanism is better inner synchronization
of the main and slave clocks (Honma & Honma, 1988) shown
by morning-type people whose clocks are well entrained to
zeitgebers such as light, temperature and social cues. The sec-
ond and third pathways can both improve mental health (Ta-
keuchi et al., 2002; Harada, 2008; Harada et al., 2012) and this
improvement could reduce the symptoms of PTSD. However,
these hypotheses remain to be tested in the future. Intervention
to improve their quality of sleep and promote a morning-typed
lifestyle may be an effective way to reduce PTSD symptoms.
Conclusion and Limitation
This study could imply the shifting to “morning-typed life”
108

H. KURODA ET AL.
might reduce the symptoms of PTSD for the victims who suf-
fered from great disaster. The limitation of this study is that the
questionnaire study cannot say the causal relationship between
morning-typology and reduced PTSD. Some experimental
study for the causal relationship is remained in the future.
Acknowledgements
We thank all the participants of this study. Thanks are also
due to the Kochi University President Foundation for Support
of Research (2009-2012: to T. Harada) and Research Funds by
JSPS (Fund No: 22370089: 2010-2013: to T. Harada; Found
No: 23·10971: 2011-2014: to K. Wada) for financial support.
Thanks are also due to Mis Laura Sato who is professional
English editor and supported us from linguistic point of view.
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