Ian Pearson’s death was announced in the British Medical Journal this week.
Dr Pearson lived in Lockerbie in 1988 and wrote about his experiences of the Pan Am crash in the publication.
He helped with counselling services in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy and said: “The variety of distress encountered varied widely in severity and type. Shock leading to indecisiveness, hypersensitivity and irritability with insomnia was a common core cluster of symptoms. In addition, there were problems with imagery.
“Behaviour responses seen commonly included hyperactivity, overtalkativeness and brittleness. Some of the most unfortunate were overwhelmed with helpless grief and despair, while others became unexpectedly precise and tramlined.”
In his piece, entitled ‘Personal View’, which ran in 1989, the doctor also noted the sense of community locally was ‘powerful’.
Along with colleagues, he helped about 70 people in the first six days, as well as some rescue workers and American visitors.
But he said: “The local population made no use of the social, psychological and psychiatric services made available in the rescue centre.”
