Health
Freed American prisoners Gershkovich and Whelan may face ‘disruptive’ trauma, say mental health experts
While Thursday’s release of American prisoners from Russia was marked by celebration and relief, the former captives could face future health challenges, experts say.
Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and American veteran Paul Whelan were among those released from Russia on Thursday in a large prisoner swap.
A third U.S. citizen, Russian-American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, was also released.
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A plane carrying the freed Americans landed at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland late Thursday night, where they were greeted by President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
The newly released prisoners were then flown to San Antonio, Texas, for evaluation and rehabilitation at Brooke Army Medical Center, a premier military medical facility, according to reports.
Former prisoners Paul Whelan, left, and Evan Gershkovich, right, were released by Russia on Aug. 2, 2024. (Getty Images)
Although the prisoners are safely back on U.S. soil and have been reunited with their families, they may experience mental health challenges stemming from the trauma of detainment, said experts.
“Besides the obvious threats to one’s safety and the horrifying prospect of confinement, a situation like this is fraught with uncertainty,” Dr. Norman Blumenthal, director of the Ohel Zachter Family National Trauma Center in New York, told Fox News Digital.
WSJ REPORTER EVAN GERSHKOVICH RELEASED BY RUSSIA IN PRISONER SWAP; PAUL WHELAN ALSO BEING FREED
“Ambiguity in and of itself induces stress — and that, coupled with their very predicament, can create a marked escalation of trauma.” (None of the experts cited here have treated the released Americans.)
Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich greets colleagues at Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland, following his release as part of a 24-person prisoner swap between Russia and the United States, on Thursday, Aug. 1, 2024. “It’s important that they have the space and privacy they need to process this on their own timeline,” said a mental health expert. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Dr. Karen DeCocker, a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner director at Stella Centers in Chicago, noted that being held captive can lead to several types of trauma.
“This varies from person to person based on prior history and the experiences encountered during captivity,” she told Fox News Digital.
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While each person reacts differently to trauma, Blumenthal predicted that the freed prisoners would likely experience an “initial thrill and exhilaration” from their liberation.
“The celebrations and enthusiastic reunions with loved ones can temporarily overshadow the trauma,” he noted.
“Frightening flashbacks and intrusive recollections can become disruptive and destabilizing.”
“As life returns to normal and routines set in, that is often when the frightening flashbacks and intrusive recollections can become disruptive and destabilizing.”
Dr. Marc Siegel, senior medical analyst for Fox News and clinical professor of medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center, said it is likely the prisoners experienced physical and mental abuse, sleep deprivation, dehydration, malnutrition and possibly infections.
Trauma disorders and symptoms
Jonathan Alpert, a psychotherapist and author based in New York City, said that Gershkovich, Whelan and Kurmasheva, along with the other released prisoners, may suffer from both acute stress disorder (ASD) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
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ASD is a short-term mental health condition that typically occurs within a month after a traumatic experience, according to Cleveland Clinic’s website.
This image released by the White House shows Evan Gershkovich, left, Alsu Kurmasheva, right, and Paul Whelan, second from right, and others aboard a plane, Thursday, Aug. 1, 2024, following their release from Russian captivity. (White House via AP)
“Acute stress disorder may include flashbacks, nightmares, intense fear and high anxiety,” Alpert told Fox News Digital.
It can also include feelings of numbness or detachment.
PTSD occurs when such symptoms persist for a month or longer, and the anxiety becomes chronic, according to Alpert.
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PTSD may include many of the same symptoms as ASD, and can impair the person’s ability to function in daily activities.
The freed prisoners may also experience depression, anger and difficulty trusting others, said Alpert.
“The celebrations and enthusiastic reunions with loved ones can temporarily overshadow the trauma.”
“I’ve also seen people have trouble focusing and making decisions in light of a trauma,” he added.
It could also be challenging for the former prisoners to reintegrate into their normal environments and social groups, Alpert said.
Symptoms of trauma are “not universal,” Siegel told Fox News Digital.
One “tried-and-true method” of coping is to retell the events to supportive people who act as listeners, not solvers, according to one expert. (iStock)
“There are differences, and not everyone experiences PTSD,” he said.
“Common symptoms include flashbacks, nightmares, depersonalization and derealization, anxiety and depression.”
DeCocker noted that symptoms can be both mental and physical — including the following five points.
1. Dissociation
“Individuals may experience dissociation, where they feel disconnected from their thoughts, feelings or sense of identity,” DeCocker told Fox News Digital.
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“This can manifest as feeling detached from oneself (depersonalization) or from the world around them (derealization).”
2. Survivor’s guilt
Some trauma survivors may feel a sense of guilt for having survived a traumatic experience when others did not, or for putting themselves or others in situations that led to captivity, DeCocker said.
They may also feel guilty about the stress and anxiety that family members and loved ones experienced during their imprisonment.
3. Interpersonal and relationship issues
“Issues with trust, intimacy and personal relationships often occur with survivors and their families,” DeCocker told Fox News Digital.
Former prisoners Evan Gershkovich, Alsu Kurmasheva and Paul Whelan were on the phone with President Biden on Thursday, Aug. 1, 2024. (The White House)
“The impact of their captivity often comes from their inability to relate the experience to others.”
4. Self-esteem and identity issues
Trauma survivors may experience feelings of shame, worthlessness or confusion about their identity, according to DeCocker.
“In this case, where there was an exchange of prisoners, there may be added complexity,” she said.
5. Cognitive distortions
It’s not uncommon for trauma survivors to have negative beliefs about themselves or the world, according to DeCocker.
“Generalizations about the world being unsafe or out of their control can occur,” she said. “Threats are often seen in everyday experiences.”
Tips for overcoming trauma
Given the high-profile release, Gershkovich and Whelan will likely receive a large amount of media attention, Alpert noted — “but it’s important that they have the space and privacy they need to process this on their own timeline.”
DeCocker agreed, stressing the importance of taking extensive time to heal and recover.
“There is no rush to reintegrate,” she told Fox News Digital. “Time is best devoted toward rest and restoring a sense of balance and normalcy.”
Embracing daily routines and structure can help with that, DeCocker said.
Former prisoner U.S.-Russian journalist Alsu Kurmasheva runs to her daughters as she arrives at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on Aug. 1, 2024. (ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP via Getty Images)
The freed prisoners may also want to avoid spending too much time on social media and the news in the early days to avoid retriggering discussions and events, she advised.
One “tried-and-true method” of coping is to retell the events to supportive people who act as listeners, not solvers, according to Blumenthal.
“Putting the experience into words can help with healing and adjusting to the more mundane aspects of life and routine,” he said.
“In the case of a severe trauma, such as being held prisoner and wrongly convicted, symptoms may not surface right away.”
If symptoms are interfering with day-to-day functioning, Alpert recommends seeking professional help.
“In the case of a severe trauma, such as being held prisoner and wrongly convicted, symptoms may not surface right away,” he pointed out.
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“It can be helpful to get ahead of it and speak to a specialist.”
All forms of professional help are useful, DeCocker noted. Those include talk therapy, psychiatric support, interventional treatment modalities specific to treating trauma, and physical treatments and therapies to heal the body.
If symptoms are interfering with day-to-day functioning, mental health experts recommend seeking professional help. (iStock)
Other treatments may include cognitive behavioral therapy, relaxation techniques, and medications such as beta blockers, antidepressants and potentially psychedelics, according to Siegel.
Support from loving family members and friends is also key, the doctor added.
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Most people do have an “inherent resilience and capacity to hope,” Blumental said.
“These and other freed hostages may, on their own, mobilize and harness strength and heroic reformulations of their recent incarceration to go on and resume normal functioning.”
Scott McDonald of Fox News Digital contributed reporting.
Over the two and a half years following the 2022 rollout of the 988 national suicide prevention hotline, the rate of suicides among young people in the United States dropped 11 percent below projections, decreasing most sharply in states with a higher volume of answered 988 calls, a new study has found.
The findings, published today as a research letter in JAMA, compared suicide deaths from July 2022 to December 2024 with sophisticated mathematical projections that were based on historical trends. This yielded good news, with 4,372 fewer suicides of adolescents and young adults, ages 15 to 34, than had been projected.
To ensure that the decline was related to the use of the hotline, researchers at Harvard Medical School teased out the trends in states with high and low usage of the hotline. The findings were striking: The 10 states with the largest increases in 988 calls experienced an 18.2 percent reduction in observed suicides compared with expected suicides; in the 10 states with the lowest uptake, the reduction was smaller, 10.6 percent.
The results suggest that the government’s investment in the 988 rollout has translated into “a measurable reduction of deaths,” said Dr. Vishal Patel, a resident physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and one of the authors of the study.
“What our study has added,” he said, “is evidence for the deeper benefit of the program, and that is, that at the population level, among young people at least, suicide mortality is lower than it would have been without the program.”
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He added, “The implication of that is that sustained funding for this program matters.”
The United States rolled out the three-digit hotline with bipartisan support in July 2022, replacing a 10-digit hotline number, and augmented it with a $1.5 billion investment in crisis center capacity. Since its inception, the service has fielded more than 25 million contacts, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. The agency has asked Congress for $534.6 million to fund the program for 2027.
Last summer, the Trump administration terminated one element of the hotline, the Press 3 option for L.G.B.T.Q.+ callers. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration said that the Press 3 option was being discontinued because it had exhausted its funding from Congress and that the hotline would “focus on serving all help seekers.”
But advocacy groups and policymakers protested the decision, and in testimony before the Senate on Tuesday, the health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., said his agency was planning to restore the Press 3 option.
Dr. Patel said his group had become curious about measuring the program’s effectiveness after Press 3 was eliminated. While call volume and satisfaction surveys suggested that 988 was succeeding, he said, the harder question was, “Did the creation of this 988 program, the transition from the old hotline to this hotline, actually move the needle on suicide mortality?”
Experts said it was difficult to tease out the beneficial effect of 988 from other things that changed in 2022, the year that the new hotline was created. Around that time, suicide prevention programs were being introduced in schools, in faith communities and on social media, but more important, the pandemic was ending.
“We were finally out of this crazy time, and there was a sense of optimism and hope,” said Jonathan B. Singer, a professor of social work at Loyola University Chicago and a co-author of “Suicide in Schools.” He called the downward trend in youth suicides “encouraging, but it is tempered by the fact that we don’t have a good explanation as to why.”
The authors acknowledged that their findings could not account for the influence of social and economic changes, changes in mental health services or public awareness about services.
But they did make comparisons to exclude other possible explanations. The authors looked for similar effects among American adults over 65, who are less likely to use the hotline. In that group, there was a reduction in suicides that exceeded expectations, but it was smaller, at just 4.5 percent.
To ensure the decline in suicides did not reflect a general improvement in young-adult mortality, the researchers tracked cancer deaths, and found there was no change. They also looked at the rates of suicide among young people in England, where no change had been made to the national crisis line in that time period; they found no reduction in youth suicides there.
Hannah Wesolowski, chief advocacy officer for the National Alliance on Mental Illness, said she was persuaded that the hotline had contributed to the improvement in suicide rates, in part because it did not appear among English youths or in older Americans.
“To me, that really helps hone in that this might really be the differentiator,” she said. “We are seeing potentially a pretty significant decline in suicides among young people. For public policy, this is strong evidence to double down on that we are doing.”
Emily Hilliard, a senior press secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services, said H.H.S. and SAMHSA are “committed to ensuring that all Americans have access” the 988 line, which she said “clearly provides lifesaving support, helping millions of people every year.”
If you are having thoughts of suicide, call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or go to SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for a list of additional resources.
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A highly contagious digestive virus is surging across the U.S., experts warn.
Rotavirus, a double-stranded RNA virus, causes acute gastroenteritis — inflammation of the stomach and intestines — which can lead to severe diarrhea, vomiting, fever and stomach pain.
The virus primarily affects infants and young children, but there have also been outbreaks in elderly populations, such as nursing homes.
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Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that in the week ending April 4, out of 2,329 rotavirus tests, 7.3% were positive for the infection. Last year’s highest infection rate was 6.77% as of the week ending April 19.
Rotavirus, a double-stranded RNA virus, causes acute gastroenteritis — inflammation of the stomach and intestines — which can lead to severe diarrhea, vomiting, fever and stomach pain. (iStock)
“We’re seeing a lot of rotavirus in the wastewater right now,” Dr. Marc Siegel, Fox News senior medical analyst, confirmed to Fox News Digital. “Testing for rotavirus is way down, but the percentage of positive tests is up.”
While the virus typically peaks in the spring, it is not currently slowing down, he noted.
Why cases may be rising
Patricia Pinto-Garcia, M.D., a medical editor at GoodRx who is based in California, said there are several possible reasons for the rotavirus spike.
“Vaccine rates are down overall among young children, as they decreased during COVID,” she told Fox News Digital. “This means there’s a growing number of infants and young children who are vulnerable to infection.”
The rotavirus vaccine series must be completed by the time a child is 8 months old, she noted.
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As a result of the declining vaccinations, herd immunity isn’t protecting vulnerable children, according to Pinto-Garcia. “Children who haven’t finished the vaccine series yet, are too young to get vaccinated, or can’t get the vaccine due to medical illness are more likely to get exposed to the illness because other children aren’t vaccinated,” she said.
Siegel noted that before the vaccine became available, rotavirus resulted in 55,000 to 70,000 in the U.S. per year.
“Vaccine rates are down overall among young children, as they decreased during COVID,” a doctor told Fox News Digital. “This means there’s a growing number of infants and young children who are vulnerable to infection.” (iStock)
“I am concerned that the vaccination rate has been declining over the past seven years and is continuing to decline in the current climate of vaccine skepticism,” he said.
Surveillance methods are also much better than they used to be, Pinto-Garcia noted, which means public health experts are able to pick up and track cases better than ever before.
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“But we see that rotavirus-related healthcare visits are also up, so improved detection is not the only reason we are seeing this spike,” she said.
The COVID pandemic also disrupted the pattern of infections, according to Pinto-Garcia, so it’s “tricky” to compare the current levels against older cycles.
“It’s possible that what we are seeing is still some post-pandemic rebound, but it’s unlikely that this year’s pattern is fully explained by just this factor,” she added.
Transmission and risk
Dr. Zachary Hoy, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Pediatrix Medical Group based in Nashville, Tennessee, often sees young patients with rotavirus.
“Rotavirus is spread via the fecal-oral route, meaning that a person comes into contact with virus droplets from contact with other children or adults, or from contact with objects such as toys that have been contaminated with the virus from someone who is sick,” he told Fox News Digital. “This can lead to outbreaks, especially at schools where many young children share the same toys.”
“It’s possible that what we are seeing is still some post-pandemic rebound, but it’s unlikely that this year’s pattern is fully explained by just this factor.”
Rotavirus is associated with many dehydration cases in the hospital due to the degree of diarrhea, according to Hoy.
In some severe cases, the virus can lead to seizures due to electrolyte imbalances from dehydration and loss of electrolytes in the stool.
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“Younger children do not have the reserves that older children and adults have, so they can become more dehydrated quicker and develop more severe electrolyte imbalances, leading to more severe infections,” Hoy said.
“Patients with problems with their immune systems or on medications that can decrease their immune systems can have more severe and prolonged infections, too.”
Treatment and care
Because rotavirus is a viral infection, antibiotics are not effective against it. There is no specific antiviral treatment for the condition, with doctors typically recommending supportive care.
“The mainstay of treatment is hospitalization for rehydration via intravenous (IV) fluids,” Hoy told Fox News Digital. “Sometimes it can take up to two to three days of IV fluids to help get patients rehydrated.”
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Blood draws are often necessary to evaluate patients’ electrolyte levels, such as sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium, according to the doctor.
“If these electrolyte levels are significantly low, sometimes patients need special IV solutions or individual electrolyte medications,” he added.
“The mainstay of treatment is hospitalization for rehydration via intravenous (IV) fluids,” a doctor told Fox News Digital. (iStock)
Dr. Daniel Park, medical director of the Pediatric Emergency Department at UNC Health in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, noted that most children recover with supportive care, but parents should seek medical attention if a child shows signs of dehydration. Those include decreased urination, lethargy or inability to keep fluids down.
“While rare, rotavirus can be life-threatening in vulnerable populations, especially very young infants or children with underlying medical conditions,” Park told Fox News Digital.
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Prevention strategies
Given the lack of antiviral medications for rotavirus, doctors emphasize the importance of prevention, primarily the vaccine.
There are two rotavirus vaccines – Rotateq (a three-dose series) and Rotarix (a two-dose series). They are given starting at age 2 months as oral drops, not injections, according to Hoy.
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“It’s important to get the rotavirus vaccines on schedule, because these younger infants are at greatest risk if they get rotavirus,” he advised.
Other recommended prevention methods include handwashing with soap and water.
Every day we’re faced with a zillion small choices: Go to sleep early, or watch one more episode of that Netflix drama. Call an old friend to catch up, or cruise social media. Of course, no single action will guarantee a long, healthy life or doom you to an early grave. But those little daily decisions do add up, and over the long term they can make a difference when it comes to both your longevity and your health span, the amount of life spent in relatively good health.
Scroll through this theoretical “day in the life” and select the option that best fits your typical day. Not every situation will apply perfectly, but think about which choice you’d be most likely to make. This isn’t a formal scientific assessment. The goal here isn’t to assign you a “good” or “bad” score, but to help you understand the central factors that shape the way we age and how long we live.
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