"If they can't adjust to the noise, their mental and then physical health suffers," Dr Amporn Benjaponpitak said. Her centre dispatched mobile units to villages around the airport late last month.

Amporn said it was too early to classify the residents as patients because many just needed encouragement, but she warned that the noise pollution could have long-term mental-health effects if those affected were unable to adapt to it.

Since Suvarnabhumi Airport began full commercial services in September there has been a flood of complaints about the noise it generates from people who live in its vicinity.

Amporn said the Mental Health Department would work closely with the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration to provide counselling services to people suffering from the effects of noise pollution.

"To prevent any long-term problem we are going to reach out to every affected village and identify people with stress. These people will be referred to doctors," she said.

Amporn said she was particularly concerned about elderly residents because they were more likely to be at home all day. Some elderly residents and children in the area were frightened by the ear-splitting sounds.

"Pre-school children are shaken by the noise," she said.

When asked why people living around Don Muang airport did not have any problem with the noise, Amporn explained that Don Muang residents were able to cope with the noise pollution because many of them moved into the area after the airport opened. They did not know what it was like before the airport opened.

Don Muang Airport had been in operation for 92 years when it closed on September 28.

However, those who live around Suvarnabhumi Airport are "accustomed to tranquillity", Amporn said.

In general, it would take most of them between one and two years to get used to the noise, she said.