Mental health issues still linger from fire in Fort McMurray

EDMONTON — The immense wildfire that scorched Fort McMurray in 2016 may have blackened more than homes.

Newly published research suggests the fire cast a lasting shadow over the lives of many residents who are still experiencing elevated rates of depression and related mental-health problems.

“There’s been a big jump,” said Vincent Agyapong, a psychiatrist and University of Alberta professor whose paper was published Saturday in the International Journal of Mental Health and Addictions.

But the research also revealed a way to help dispel the darkness.

Agyapong was working in Fort McMurray when the fire that came to be known as “The Beast” hit the city that May. He helped patients in the hospital get to safety before fleeing himself.

When he returned to his clinical practice in the city, after the immediate chaos subsided, he realized he had a chance to learn something about resilience.

“We thought it was an opportune time to change the focus to actually looking at the mental-health impacts of the Fort McMurray wildfire,” he said.

Agyapong and his colleagues developed an extensive survey that included questions about age, employment, where people were before the fire, how exposed they were, how much media they followed and their clinical history. The team received 486 completed responses. Previously reported results found the rate of probable post-traumatic stress disorder was 12.8 per cent -- more than 10 times the normal rate for Alberta.

Agyapong’s research used standard psychiatric tests to conclude the fire correlated to a much broader set of problems.

The survey found that six months after flames tore through parts of the city, almost 15 per cent of respondents were suffering from some type of major depressive disorder. The rate was 17 per cent for women and 10 per cent for men. The average Alberta rate is 3.3 per cent.

Those disorders were also associated with substance abuse.

“We found that those that presented with (depressive disorder) were far more likely to present with alcohol use disorder and substance use disorder as well as nicotine dependence,” Agyapong said.

The survey found those with depression symptoms were roughly twice as likely to abuse drugs and alcohol.

Preliminary results from further studies suggest those problems persist.

The researchers surveyed people who were visiting a health-care facility for any reason in November 2017, 18 months after the fire. Nearly one-quarter of respondents met the criteria for anxiety disorders and over 13 per cent for PTSD.