Psychological fallout of nuclear testing assessed

It has been more than 50 years since New Zealand naval personnel were exposed to radiation from nuclear testing – but the psychological fallout is only now being realised.

The psychological effects on the sailors of the British military's Operation Grapple programme in the 1950s is the subject of Rebekah Jourdain's Doctorate of Clinical Psychology thesis. She was one of five doctoral graduates to have their degrees from the School of Psychology conferred today.

Dr Jourdain, 29, from Palmerston North, was part of a team of researchers who took a psychological profile of veterans exposed to fallout from detonations, which took place in the South Pacific from 1957.

Up to 100 veterans were interviewed by another member of the research team, Judy Blakey, with Dr Jourdain stepping in to analyse the data when her colleague left the project to pursue her own studies.
She also studied an emerging therapy, which aims to ease the health anxieties of these same naval veterans. Depressive symptoms shown by veterans, their perceived mental and physical health as well as memory, were compared to that of a group of military men who hadn’t been exposed to radiation.

“We found that the group who were exposed to radiation generally came out worse off overall," she says.
“It’s been one of the most fascinating topics to study because it’s an unusual series of events and not something there is a lot of research on, nor something that is widely recognised as having a psychological effect on people."

Ms Jourdain’s research began as a master's thesis in 2004 but was upgraded to a DClinPsych.

It coincided with the emergence of a new kind of therapy for such nuclear test survivors, called acceptance and commitment therapy, which aims to teach the veterans to acknowledge their experience, the effects of the testing on them and to pursue the things they wanted to without being held back by anxiety about their health.

Dr Jourdain says the therapy "helps people to accept things they can’t change, and change the things they can. It also helps people to view uncomfortable thoughts, emotions, and memories in a different way. They can then live the kind of life they want to live, even though these may still be present.”

She hopes the research will raise public awareness about the psychological impacts of the testing and show “ there are therapies available that can help people live with their situation and still have a life they value.”

Ms Jourdain thought that this approach could also be effectively applied for those who have experienced other kinds of toxic/chemical exposure.

World leading research by now retired Associate Professor Al Rowland, from Institute of Molecular Biosciences, addressed the genetic rather than psychological damage of the nuclear testing on military personnel.