Expert: Ivan Goldberg, M.D. - 2/16/2009

Question
Hello, how are you going? My name is Christina and I live in Australia. My Mum has got schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, and last week in Austrlia, there were terrible bushfires and 189 people died. Ever since that happened, my Mum watches it on the news every day and she is very sad and she cries a lot, and her symptoms have all flared up and are all much worse now. Apart from hr usual medication I was wondering what should I do to help her- is it better if I switch off the tv when stuff about the bushfires come on, or should I let her watch it and then talk about it with her? Or should I not talk about it with her as that woud make her symptoms worse? Thanks heaps for your help, I do appreciate it a lot. Kind Regards, from Christina

Answer
Hi Christina . . .

I practice in New York City and the events of 9/11 gave me some insight into the effects of trauma upon people with psychiatric disorders.

It turns out that the more one watches news reports on television regarding tragic events the harder a time one has.

During the events of 9/11 those of my patients who I was able to convince to limit their news gathering to two or three radio news programs a day did much bette than those who watched television for many hours a day.

Best regards . . .

Ivan
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