The United States is not adequately prepared to deal with the mental health consequences of a terrorist attack, according to a new report to be published by the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP).

University Provost Steven E. Hyman, who chaired the task force behind the report, said that scientists do not yet fully understand how to deal with the psychological ramifications of a terrorist attack.

“It is quite clear that we don’t know enough in terms of research on the impact of terrorism either on broad and healthy populations or on that minority who goes on to develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD),” Hyman said. “It is well worth doing research in both areas.”

Hyman said that one of the primary assertions of the report is that terrorists aim to inflict psychological trauma.

“Terrorists do not believe that they are going to defeat us militarily. Terrorists are actually using their acts to spread fear, damage our confidence and force us to alter our way of life,” Hyman said.

The report said that current treatments are not effective, and that more research must be funded.

Task Force member Rachel Yahuda, a psychiatry professor at the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, said that she would like the government to actively consult mental health researchers in preparation of terrorist attacks.

“What would be fantastic is if the Department of Homeland Security included the scientific community in some form in the planning of preparedness for disaster and made provisions to plan for mental health causalities,” Yahuda said.

Hyman said that while more funds should be given to researching mental health, he warns that this effort should not detract from other preparation efforts.

“There was a 1.7 billion increase in biodefense funding which is entirely appropriate, and I don’t want to take anything away from that,” Hyman said. “But there should be at least some incremental investment given the real risks in our society of additional terrorist events.”

One area of contention highlighted in the report was the effectiveness of psychological debriefing, which is a single session of therapy within days of a traumatic event, and whether or not it should be pursued at all.

“It should be abandoned,” Hyman said. “Their clinical trials’ data suggests that debriefing is at best ineffective or inert. There is one study that suggests that it may even be harmful.”

But Yahuda said that although debriefing may not work for everyone, it can still be an effective treatment.

“If I had to solve a problem that 100 people in a room were hungry, I could order 100 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and that sounds like it might be a good solution,” Yahuda said.

“However, it would be very important for me to ascertain if anybody is allergic to peanut butter. It is important that we know about the people we are trying to help before we rush to help them with a peanut butter sandwich,” he said.