1 of 5 | Police prepare to repel demonstrators during clashes in Hong Kong on October 1, 2019. File Photo by Thomas Maresca/UPI |
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Jan. 10 (UPI) -- Months of often violent protests in Hong Kong have taken a psychological toll on millions of people in the island territory -- on a level comparable to trauma produced by terrorist attacks and war zones, a new study said Friday.
Researchers at the University of Hong Kong said in their analysis about a third of adults on the island, about two million people, have experienced some form of post-traumatic stress disorder due to the demonstrations, which have routinely been marred by clashes with police.
The study, published in the medical journal The Lancet, said researchers surveyed 18,000 people over the past decade for the study on social unrest and its impact on mental health. Hong Kong has a population of 7.5 million, of which 6.3 million are adults.
The protests began last March but surged in June, initially to oppose a bill that would have allowed mainland China to extradite fugitives from Hong Kong for trial. The substantial opposition ultimately led lawmakers to pull the bill, but the demonstrations continued as a show of resistance to other controversial issues like police brutality and economic inequality.
The island-wide protests have led to nearly 7,000 arrests, 2,500 injuries and two deaths.
"Our prospective findings show a high prevalence of probable depression and suspected PTSD," the 12-page study said. "Probable depression is more than five times higher than it was before 2014 and has doubled since the 2014 Occupy Central Movement."
"PTSD symptoms increased by a factor of six compared with post-Occupy Central," it added. "One in five adults now reports probable depression or suspected PTSD, which is comparable to those experiencing armed conflicts, large-scale disasters, or terrorist attacks."
Gabriel Leung, dean of medicine at the University of Hong Kong and co-author of the report, said the island territory doesn't have sufficient resources to deal with such an "excess mental health burden."
"Our findings show a major mental health burden associated with the ongoing Hong Kong social unrest," the report states. "This will require substantial increases in service surge capacity in both the health and social sectors, and in real time."
"Probable depression and suspected PTSD could result in functional impairment for parenting and work, as well as substantial economic costs," it added. "[Future] surveillance and monitoring of the mental health consequences of major social unrest, in addition to current conventions for infectious epidemics, wars, and natural disasters, should become routine as part of preparedness efforts worldwide."
