Shell-shock and other neuropsychiatric problems : $b Presented in five hundred and eighty-nine case histories from the war literature, 1914-1918Southard, Elmer Ernest
History
Shell-shock and other neuropsychiatric problems : $b Presented in five hundred and eighty-nine case histories from the war literature, 1914-1918
Southard, Elmer Ernest
War neuroses; World War, 1914-1918 -- Medical care; World War, 1914-1918 -- Psychological aspects
Friedmann reports the case on account of certain peculiar seizures
which, upon the man’s own story, had begun five weeks before, in
the field, although he had told no one about them. He had never
felt anything like them before. At first, they came three to five
times almost every night. He would suddenly wake and find himself
unable to move, to speak, or even to think. These seizures, however,
were not accompanied by any feeling of anxiety or any respiratory
distress. Consciousness remained clear, and after 10 or 15 seconds,
he could begin to think normally again. It was clearly a question of
psychopathic absences of a mild narcoleptic type, occurring, however,
only at night.
Daytimes, also, throughout the whole period in which the nocturnal
absences occurred, there were seizures of another description. During
the many hours in which he had to sit in the trench, about twice a
day for half an hour long, he would plunge suddenly into a sort of
irresistible lethargy. Without any external occasion whatever, there
would be a feeling of great fatigue. In the spell he could not move or
think, would lean his head upon his hand. He was unable to overcome the
feeling of weariness and became convinced that he was ill, and that
the fatigue could not be natural. However, he did his work like the
rest. Friedmann interprets these spells as a kind of imperfect sleep.
The patient was physically healthy and stalwart, mentally not
excitable, and tolerably tranquil in the midst of shell fire. He would
never have been reported sick had it not been for his wound. Aside
from the tachycardia, of which he himself complained little, nothing
wrong was found in the hospital. There was, to be sure, a feeling of
discomfort without any hysterical tinge, and sleep was restless. Aside
from the peroneus palsy, the injury made a good recovery. The nocturnal
attacks persisted; bromides and even luminal failed of effect. There
was, however, no longer any somnolence by day. In fact, for the five
weeks of observation, there was no change in his condition.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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