People in less-affected areas of southwest China's earthquake zone have been "neglected for half a year" since the fatal earthquake in May, according to counselors in the region.

"The percentage of people with psychological problems was higher in less-affected areas, such as Chengdu," said psychologist Zhang Wei, deputy director of the West China Medical School of Sichuan University.

Zhang and his team interviewed more than 20,000 people in four cities of Sichuan Province, including the provincial capital Chengdu. They found that overall, those with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), an anxiety disorder that can follow disturbing events, had fallen below 10 percent. But the figure in less-hit areas was somewhat above the average.

"It is unusual," Zhang said. However, "people in areas farther away from the epicenter have been neglected."

Zhang's team noted that people in less-hit zones might have lost their families, been overworked or been affected by graphic media reports on the disaster.

According to the study, more than 5 percent of Sichuan's population had PTSD, equivalent to 2 million people. Such a state of anxiety might lead to heart or digestive ailments, injuries or even death.

About 80 percent could be helped by psychosocial intervention, but the other 400,000 people would have PTSD forever.

Some would not be able to endure it. The deaths and suicides of some quake zone officials in October were attributed to anxiety and overwork.

Zhang said that at the six-month mark, there had been a second wave of PTSD.

Many people were "trapped" in the memory of trying to save themselves or others, which caused depression. Although society as a whole had moved on to the reconstruction phase after several months, the passing of the acute stage of the crisis had left survivors with more time to think about the tragedy, leading to sadness.

And although more attention should be given to psychological work at this time, fewer and fewer volunteer psychologists were able to continue doing the work, Zhang said.

Chen Ting is a long-term volunteer psychologist helping the survivors in Juyuan High School in Dujiangyan City, very close to the epicenter.

"It's difficult to round up as many volunteers as during the first two months, " said Chen, a 37-year-old psychological volunteer leader.

Chen used to lead a team of more than 20 people but only has six now, including a high-ranking local official and a professor.

She worried that many volunteers were not professional and would cause more problems than they solved.

"Some could only ask questions such as 'did you feel miserable?' but had nothing comforting to say when their questions aroused bad memories among survivors.

"That's not 'help'," said Chen, who trained many volunteers for free.

The trained volunteers were far from enough for the worst-hit areas, let alone the less-affected regions, she said. The province at one point had thousands of volunteer counselors but that number had fallen to a few hundred, most of whom were not professionals.

Zhang said some people didn't realize that the physical symptoms they were having had been caused by mental problems and tended to deny their problems entirely. And for many people, Zhang said, the window for healing had simply passed.

(Xinhua News Agency November 13, 2008)