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
Shell-explosion; burial: Tabes dorsalis incipiens.
=Case 22.= (DUCO and BLUM, 1917.)
A French soldier was buried by effects of shell explosion September 8,
1914. He sustained no wound or fracture.
Incontinence of urine developed. Anesthesia of penis and scrotum.
Reflexes absent; pupils sluggish. Wassermann reactions suspicious.
The diagnosis =tabes dorsalis incipiens= was made (hematomyelia of
conus terminalis eliminated).
The patient was estimated to be “40% incapacitated,” according to the
French “_échelle de gravité_” of conditions. A full pension would not
be justified in the opinion of the French authors.
SHELL-SHOCK PSEUDOTABES (non-syphilitic, serum W. R. positive).
Improvement.
=Case 23.= (PITRES and MARCHAND, November, 1916.)
Innkeeper B., 36, a shell-shock and burial victim June 20, 1915, was
looked on by a number of physicians as a case of genuine tabes.
Even eight months after the episode, he still showed (when observed
by Pitres and Marchand, February 3, 1916) absence of knee-jerks and
Achilles jerks, a slight swaying in the Romberg position, pupils
sluggish to light, incoördination, delayed sensations. There was also
a history of pains in the legs, compared by the patient to those of
sciatica. These pains came in crises, the longest of which had lasted
30 hours.
It seems that this soldier’s troubles began the day after his shock
with a feeling of swollen feet and of cotton wool under them. He stayed
on service, however, walking with increasing difficulty.
At the time of his evacuation, July 10, he could walk with great
difficulty. “Strips of lead were between his legs.” He could hardly
control movements in the dark, or descend stairs. Often his legs would
bend under him. Vesical function sluggish.
After a few months the patient could walk better. In February, 1916,
he walked thrusting his legs forward trembling, and dragging toes a
little. He could not support himself on either leg. Jerkiness and
incoördination in extension or flexion of leg on thigh.
The muscular weakness was decidedly against tabes or at all events
a pure tabes. The incoördination proved to be due, not to loss
of position sense (which was intact) but to unsteady muscular
contractions. Deep sensibility was intact.
There were no mental symptoms. There was a slight hesitation in speech
and doubling of syllables, but nothing demonstrable with test phrases.
The serum W. R. was positive.
Shell explosion; unconsciousness: Neurosyphilis.
=Case 24.= (HURST, April, 1917.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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