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
The patient was now less stupid and could tell how he jumped when
the shell burst, and how he had been in the air ten minutes (!) and
fell, getting up at once, with nothing wrong except nosebleed. After a
half-hour he felt weaker and was ordered to leave the post, whereupon,
on the road, his weakness increased and he tended to fall to the right,
but reached the ambulance on foot.
October 23, there was no longer any evidence of hemiparesis, the
Babinski reflex had entirely disappeared; there was no complaint except
of dizziness and headaches. He got back his autocritique on the matter
of remaining in the air ten minutes, but there was still an amnesia for
the ten day period between the shock and his arrival at Paul-Brousse.
He forgot that he had had a lumbar puncture October 7.
Another puncture, October 25, yielded some 14 or 15 lymphocytes to the
cmm. There was still an excess of albumin. The lymphocytes decreased
further according to a puncture November 2. Had this patient been
examined some weeks after the shock there would have been no signs of
an organic paresis, no special modification of the spinal fluid, and no
reason for regarding the man as other than an hysteric. Early spinal
puncture is, accordingly, important.
Of course, the question whether the lymphocytes and hyperalbuminosis
of the fluid might not be syphilitic must be raised. At the Hospital
Medical Society meeting, October 29, 1915, Souques states that
Ravaut and Guillain believe that simple shell-shock often produces
“syphilitic” chemical, physical or cytological changes in the spinal
fluid. Roussy is cited as thinking such changes rare.
Shell-shock; burial: Coma and semicoma; BLOOD-STAINED SPINAL FLUID.
Improvement on puncture. Persistent astasia abasia with spasticity.
=Case 206.= (LERICHE, September, 1915.)
A man was buried March 15, 1915, following the bursting of a large
calibre shell. He is said to have had hemoptysis and arrived at
hospital March 17 in coma. He kept moaning while asleep. March 18, he
was still stupid and as if stunned. He did not talk or understand what
was said, but was able to write a few words. The knee-jerks were a
little exaggerated. There was a slight spasticity of the limbs, which
was exaggerated on emotion into a sort of spasmodic crisis.
Lumbar puncture gave a reddish fluid under strong tension. After lumbar
puncture the man came out of coma and the next day, after another
puncture (fluid slightly yellowish), there was further improvement and
the patient spoke. The third puncture, March 20, yielded yellow fluid.
The spastic phenomena still persisted, however. The patient could not
walk or stand. Every time he touched the ground he had a clonic crisis.
He was evacuated to a neurological center.
_Re_ astasia-abasia, Nonne found these cases heading a group of 63
cases of war hysteria treated in a twelvemonth. Figures as follows:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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