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
On the mental side it was clear that the man’s character had changed,
according to information supplied by the mother. Aprosexia, impairment
of memory, recollective and retentive, inability to give age, birth
date and similar data. Words came with difficulty. Some disorder of
comprehension; stereotyped replies; negativism; indifference; he would
sit hours in a chair or on a bed silent and inactive. Fixed attitudes;
dull glance; eyelids half closed. In short, it seemed as if this
patient was a case of catatonic dementia praecox.
_Re_ dementia praecox and shell-shock, Stansfield remarks upon the
similarity of certain symptoms found in Shell-shock to those of
dementia praecox; for example, apathy, retardation, amnesia and speech
defect. According to Stansfield, one often gets the impression in a
Shell-shock case as though the trench and shell fire stress had merely
brought out a latent dementia praecox.
_Re_ his new “sterno” sign (sternomastoid contraction on percussion
of neck at level of third dorsal vertebra), Dupouy claims it negative
in normal subjects, positive in concussion, meningitis, and general
paresis.
Shell-shock; fatigue; fugue; delusions. Recovery.
=Case 162.= (ROUGE, 1915.)
A sergeant, 40, had had nineteen years of service and had been married
five months when he was recalled to the colors when war broke out,
and sent to the front. March, 1915, he was exposed to bomb explosions
during a very intense bombardment. He then got into the way of saying
that he was akin to everybody. April 20, he was evacuated on the score
of general fatigue, rejoined the company May 17, left his comrades
at the end of June, and was taken up as a deserter by the police,
who, observing his state, brought him to a hospital. He there showed
“cerebral overexcitement” with “incoherence and nervousness.” In two or
three days he was much better. He was evacuated on the sixth day to the
hospital at Vichy.
There was amnesia for the fugue and he could remember no further back
than the extraction of a tooth at the Vichy hospital. In fact, he
attributed the fugue to this dental operation. His wife took him home,
but he soon threatened her with a revolver; got better in the night
and next day went about apparently normal, buying things, however,
extravagantly. His delusional state began once more, and two days later
he was brought to Limoux. It seems that, while in Mauretania, he had
formerly shown signs of mental disorder, having a mania for wireless
and airplane inventions and the like. A cousin-german had also been
in a hospital for the insane twice, recovering each time. There was a
lingual and manual tremor. The man had not been recently alcoholic. He
was a little irritable and showed a little megalomania, but worked hard
and made himself useful. He went out, recovered, November 12, 1915.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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