STUDY EXAMINES HOW SURVIVORS OF DRUG WAR COPE

EL PASO -- The drug-fueled violence that has claimed nearly 2,000
lives in Juarez during the past 14 months has countless shellshocked
victims.

Researchers at the University of Texas at El Paso are beginning to
study how people, starting with women, left behind are coping with
life in the city that has been numbed by daily assassinations and
gruesome crime scenes.

"It's basically a war zone now and very chaotic," said Kathleen
O'Connor, an assistant professor at UTEP's School of Nursing and the
lead researcher for the project.

The study, paid for by the university, will involve about 200 Juarez
women and include a mental-health screening and interviews about their
experiences. O'Connor said she would begin by speaking with women who
cross the border into El Paso, but she also hopes to eventually
conduct the study in Juarez.

She plans to seek grant money to continue the study by collecting data
and conducting more mental-health screenings to help create a better,
broader picture of the problem.

The data are expected to help service providers and others better
grasp the problems caused by the drug violence and develop possible
solutions.

"It would broaden our knowledge about what happens in civil war and
what happens with drug violence," O'Connor said. "It broadens the
knowledge base so we're able to develop policies."

She said Juarez residents with enough money or family connections move
to El Paso. The others, who are stuck in the killing zones of Juarez,
are the focus of her research.

"The people at risk are the low-income we're working with right now,"
O'Connor said.

She wants to investigate depression and post-traumatic stress
disorder, or PTSD, among women in Juarez, and then compare her
findings with other areas on the American side of the border.

"They have no means to get out of their neighborhoods. They don't have
any means to take children out of schools and take them somewhere
else," she said.

O'Connor is beginning the research by speaking with people who cross
the international bridge from Mexico into the United States to work in
the informal economy here, in jobs such as housekeeping or in physical
labor.

"If, unfortunately, someone had witnessed one of these murders, it
would probably have an impact on them," said Robert Anders, dean of
the UTEP School of Nursing. "We expect soldiers to be ready for this
kind of thing, and of course they're not."

He said that when civilians, particularly those in lower socioeconomic
groups, are put in similar situations, the chance for mental-health
problems increases.

O'Connor said she expects to find increased numbers of people
suffering from PTSD, depression, extreme-anxiety disorder and insomnia.

"Some of the extreme cases can lead to flat-out psychosis, probably
temporarily," she said. "It depends on how close the people would be
to the violence."

PTSD will be a focus of the study. The National Institute of Mental
Health said symptoms of the disorder include people feeling as if they
were experiencing the event again with flashbacks or nightmares.

People may also feel emotionally numb, guilty or depressed and lose
interest in activities that once were enjoyable.

Other common symptoms of PTSD are feeling tense, being startled
easily, having difficulty sleeping and displaying angry outbursts.

Although many of the symptoms are normal after a traumatic event, they
can be indicative of PTSD if they persist longer than a few weeks or
if they begin weeks or months after the incident.

Residents of Juarez may find homicide victims in their yards or walk
past bodies on streets, O'Connor said.

"If you're subjected over a long period of time, it could lead to
depression, which is a serious public health hazard," she said.

She said violence also has an economic effect because it can lead to
fewer hours being worked or to lower workplace productivity.

The research will include a way for the participants to get help if
they are found to be living with mental-health problems. O'Connor said
that would include providing them printed information and and putting
them in contact with services in Juarez and El Paso that can help.

Psychotherapy and medication are often the treatments for people
suffering from PTSD, according to the National Institute of Mental
Health.

O'Connor is focusing on the famale population, she said, because it is
easier to develop trust among women if the researcher also is a woman.

"It just seems like these are women who don't necessarily have people
speaking for them or looking at how they think," she said.