The Short Version
Yılmazer's 2025 research does document substantial psychological distress — including anxiety and near-threshold PTSD symptoms, with 31% meeting probable PTSD criteria — among survivors of the 2023 Kahramanmaraş earthquakes. However, the claim overgeneralizes by attributing findings about one earthquake to "natural catastrophes" broadly, and the cross-sectional study design lacks a pre-disaster baseline, meaning it documents distress levels rather than formally demonstrating a "significant increase." The broader disaster-mental-health literature strongly supports the directional conclusion.