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A new study has attempted to draw attention to the effects of repeated exposure to violent images like those of a terrorist attack, or a war, and concluded that it leads to long lasting physical and mental consequences.

The new UC Irvine study focused on the lingering effects of repeated exposure to images of 'collective traumas' in a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults. 

"I would not advocate restricting nor censoring war images for the psychological well-being of the public," said study author Roxane Cohen Silver, UCI professor of psychology & social behavior, medicine and public health. 

"Instead, I think it's important for people to be aware that there is no psychological benefit to repeated exposure to graphic images of horror." 

The study revealed that those exposed to television coverage of 9/11 and Iraq War for more than four hours a day, in the following weeks of the attacks, reported acute and post-traumatic stress symptoms in two three years.

Out of the various images, the pictures which were associated with post-traumatic stress symptoms were two: One which showed soldiers engaged in the battle and another which had the image of dead U.S. and Allied soldiers. 

For the study, the researchers collected and analyzed data on the media exposure and physical as well as mental health of participants before the attacks and their acute stress responses immediately after the attacks and after the initiation of the Iraq War. 

A follow up study was also conducted by the researchers three years after 9/11. 

Acute stress period is classified as the first few weeks immediately after an event, while post-traumatic stress is after one month. 

The researchers had started measuring stress levels experienced by people within 9 to 14 days after 9/11 attacks and within days of the start of the Iraq War. 

It was found that about 12 percent of the total 1,322 participants experienced acute stress related to 9/11 attacks and some 7 percent reported high levels of acute stress due to Iraq War.

The researchers had taken into consideration the mental health condition of the participants before 9/11 and the Iraq war, apart from demographic characteristics and lifetime trauma exposure and found that 4 or more hours of exposure to disturbing images on TV could lead to symptoms of acute stress in people. 

"The results suggest that exposure to graphic media images may be an important mechanism through which the impact of collective trauma is dispersed widely," Silver says. "Our findings are both relevant and timely as vivid images reach larger audiences than ever before through YouTube, social media and smart phones." 

"When we consider that graphic images of individuals being overcome by the 2011 tsunami in Japan were shown repeatedly, that a vigorous debate occurred last year regarding the release of the gruesome death photos of Osama bin Laden, and that vivid and disturbing images of 9/11 will likely appear on our television screens marking the anniversary of the attacks, we believe that our paper has something important to say regarding the impact of repeated exposure to graphic traumatic images," Silver added.