Alcohol use at Nova Festival massacre intensified survivors’ PTSD risks, researchers say
Survivors of the massacre at the Nova music festival who consumed alcohol during the all-night rave experienced higher levels of anxiety, depression, and stress, suggesting it impairs the brain’s ability to cope with trauma, Israeli researchers said on Sunday.
Visitors at the site of the Supernova music festival massacre near Kibbutz Re’im, Nov. 30, 2023. Photo by Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90.
Notably, the researchers found that alcohol weakened the brain’s ability far more than drugs.
The all-night music festival, attended by 3,500 people on the grounds of Kibbutz Re’im, became a killing field where 364 people were massacred and 40 others were taken hostage. Of all the locations attacked by Hamas on October 7, the highest death toll was at the music festival. To survive, participants were forced to flee and hide, and many were under the influence of alcohol and drugs commonly consumed at music festivals.
The study, led by Prof. Hagit Cohen from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev’s Faculty of Health Sciences and Dr. Nitza Nakash-Axelrod from Sheba Medical Center’s Psychiatry Division, found that alcohol specifically played a significant role in exacerbating stress-related symptoms during and after the attack.
According to Prof. Cohen, the findings have broader implications beyond the Nova massacre. “In light of the widespread prevalence of alcohol consumption in social gatherings and increasing incidents of sexual assaults, physical assaults, and traffic accidents, these findings also hold social and clinical significance,” she said.
The team’s findings were recently published in the peer-reviewed World Psychiatry journal.
The research involved 123 survivors with an average age of 28 years. Among them, 71 individuals (57.7%) reported using psychoactive substances during the festival, including alcohol, LSD, cannabis and other recreational drugs.
Participants underwent assessments measuring levels of traumatic dissociation during the event, as well as symptoms of anxiety, depression, and acute stress reactions.
The findings revealed that survivors who reported alcohol at the festival exhibited significantly higher levels of anxiety, depression, and stress-related symptoms compared to those who did not consume any substances, or had used recreational drugs but not alcohol.
Notably, alcohol was found to be the most influential factor, intensifying hyperarousal, anxiety, and depressive responses, as well as acute stress symptoms, even when used in combination with other drugs.
“The severity of anxiety symptoms was significantly correlated with alcohol consumption prior to the event. Consuming alcohol, as compared with consuming other drugs prior to the event, significantly increased the likelihood of anxiety. None of the other drugs consumed prior to the event significantly affected symptoms of anxiety,” the study said.
The study highlighted that alcohol consumption led to longer and more frequent dissociative reactions during the traumatic experience.
“It is possible that the consumption of alcohol before the attack interfered with the cognitive, emotional and physiological processes,” Nakash said. “These are necessary processes that make it possible to deal with the trauma. In this case, the traumatic event lasted for many hours, so it is possible that the survivors experienced a hangover, which could have increased their anxiety and traumatic stress.”
