Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

In October 2002 armed suicide terrorists held over 800 theatergoers hostage for three days. The standoff ended when Russian Special Forces gassed and stormed the theater. The terrorists were killed and hostages were dragged to buses that took them to hospitals where unprepared doctors struggled to revive them. 130 hostages died: 125 from the gas, only five directly from the terrorists’ actions. An American author collaborated with colleagues from the Russian Academy of Sciences shortly after the event to study acute psychological responses of the hostages. This paper reports on posttraumatic and acute responses following the event in eleven hostages and makes recommendations for short-term interventions following such an ordeal.

Keywords

hostage suicide terrorism Impact of Events Scale hostage taking posttraumatic stress acute stress grief dissociation

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

American Psychiatric Association . (1994). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.

Donovan, D. M. (1991). Traumatology: A field whose time has come. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 4(3), 433-436.

Donovan, D. M. (1992). Traumatology: What’s in a name? Journal of Traumatic Stress, 6(3), 409-411.

Himchyan. (2002). Personal communication

Hobbs, M. , Mayou, R. , Harrison, B. , & Worlock, P. (1996). A randomized controlled trial of psychological debriefing for victims of road traffic accidents. British Medical Journal, 313, 1438-1439.

Kenardy, J. A. , Webster, R. A. , Lewin, T. J. , Carr, V. J. , Hazell, P. L. , & Carter, G. L. (1996). Stress debriefing and patterns of recovery following a natural disaster. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 9, 37-49.

National Institute of Mental Health . (2002). Mental health and mass violence: Evidence based early psychological intervention for victims/survivors of mass violence. workshop to reach consensus on best practices. (NIH Publication No 02-5138). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

Speckhard, A. , Tarabrina, N. , Krasnov, V. , & Akhmedova, K. (2004). Observations of suicidal terrorists in action: The Chechen terrorist takeover of a Moscow theater. Journal of Terrorism and Political Violence, 16(2), 305-327.

Speckhard, A. , Tarabrina, N. , Krasnov, V. , & Mufel, N. (in press). Stockholm effects and psychological responses to captivity in hostages held by suicide terrorists, Traumatology, the International Journal.

10.

Tarabrina, N. V. , Lazebnaya, E. O. , Zelonova, M. E. , Lasko, N. B. , Orr, S. P. , Pitman, R. K. , 1993. Psychophysiological responses of Chernobyl liquidators during script-driven imagery. International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies Annual Meeting, San Antonio, Texas.

11.

van der Kolk, B. A. (2002). In terror’s grip: Healing the ravages of trauma. Cerebrum, 4, 34-50.

12.

van der Kolk, B. A. , Hopper, J. W. , & Osterman, J. E. (2001). Exploring the nature of traumatic memory: Combining clinical knowledge with laboratory methods. Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment and Trauma, 4(2), 9-31.

13.

van der Kolk, B. A. , Burbridge, J. A. , & Suzuki, J. (1997). The psychobiology of traumatic memory: clinical implications of neuroimaging studies. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 821, 99-113.

14.

Weiss, D. S. , & Marmar, C. R. (1995). The impact of event scale - revised. In J. P. Wilson & T. M. Keane (Eds.), Assessing psychological trauma and PTSD: A practioner’s handbook. New York: Guilford.

Posttraumatic and Acute Stress Responses in Hostages Held by Suicide Terrorists in the Takeover of a Moscow Theater

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References