Samoon Ahmad, MD

Post-traumatic Stress Disorder

A literature search on the impact of disaster on people of various cultures and their resilience to stress after such events reveals that most such studies have been conducted in the United States, Europe, and Southeast Asia. No scientific papers have been written, nor has any protocol been developed, to study the population of South Asia, where modern psychiatry is nonexistent.

It is important to study this population because it is one of the world’s oldest civilizations (5,000 years) and is detached from the modern world by virtue of its geographical inaccessibility and resistance to accepting modern medicine.

It is also important to understand how living in nuclear extended families with strong religious and spiritual belief systems affects coping mechanisms in disasters.

I visited this earthquake-stricken region and conducted video interviews with victims, relief agents, and religious leaders to understand victims’ experiences of trauma, as well as their resilience in the face of extremely harsh conditions, specifically assessing the prevalence and degree of post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, and depressive disorders.

Metabolic Disorders and Severe Persistent Mental Illness

I conducted a study to examine the relationship between risk factors for diabetes and cardiovascular disease and exposure to psychotropic medication in adults with serious mental illness. I enrolled nearly 1,000 patients who were admitted to NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue inpatient units, entering comprehensive information into a unique database, including demographic information; clinical, personal, and family histories of psychiatric and metabolic disorders; cardiovascular and diabetes risk factors; laboratory and physical findings; and information on lifetime medication use. This is the most comprehensive naturalistic information from an ethnically diverse public hospital system that is currently available.