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Chilean miners risk mental problems

15 October 2010 00:54 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Isolation and having lived for so long in the dark may have affected the trapped Chilean miners, placing them at an increased risk of developing psychological problems, APA reports quoting Press TV.

Chile’s Health Minister Jaime Manalich announced on Thursday that the miners’ health â€œis more than satisfactory and some of the miners will be released from the hospital today,â€ the BBC reported.

Only a few of the rescued miners, including two cases with dental problems and one suffering from a previously diagnosed lung disease, need immediate medical attention, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Several miners also need further medical care due to eye problems, partly collapsed lungs and various fungal infections.

In the long term, however, they might face problems such as depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and sleep difficulties, the Wall Street Journal reported an expert as saying.

â€œThey may look fine now, but they could have flashbacks and nightmares six months from now or even later,â€ he added.

Doctors believe being isolated in the darkness for such a long time may have taken its physical and psychological toll on the miners as they are likely to have a hard time re-adjusting to normal life.

"I think there is a classic fear we all have, of the buried alive phenomenon -- what if I were confined to a space, how would I manage it?" explained Ian Sadler, a psychologist from Maricopa Medical Center.

He went on to say that the miners might have been suffering from hypervigilance, a heightened state of anxiety.

"The treatment for this kind of stuff is what we call exposure and response prevention. You want to expose their person, to make them realize it is done and it is safe," he added.

"They probably experience the trauma and were immersed in it for that period of time. It has probably normalized itself already that the harder part is adjusting to their home and wives and kids,â€ Sadler further explained.

Thirty-three miners were trapped in a small chamber on August 5, when the San Jose mine collapsed and the exit was blocked.

The men were feared dead for weeks. However, on August 22, they attached a note to a drill probe that had broken through to the chamber where they had taken shelter, saying they were all alive, well and awaiting rescue.

All the 33 Chilean miners, who have been trapped for 69 days in the mine in the country’s northern city of Copiapo, were rescued on October 14.