I HAVE HAD CONTACT with injured victims, family members of missing persons, and our own hospital staff. People have reacted in a variety of ways to the catastrophe—most have reacted with anxiety, depression, and insomnia, some with phobic reactions and physical symptoms, and a few with symptoms of major psychiatric illness.

I lived in Los Angeles during the riots and earthquake there, but this experience has for me been associated with much more intense feelings of fatigue and sadness.

    —Spencer Eth, M.D., medical director of behavioral health services at St. Vincent’s Hospital in New York City, the hospital that operates the trauma center closest to the World Trade Center