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 Wassermann reaction was still strongly positive. Salvarsan,
mercury, and iodide were continued. January 6, 1917, the plantar reflex
had become flexor. The abdominal reflex returned. Babinski’s second
sign (combined flexion of thigh and pelvis) was now the only evidence
of organic disease. Further antisyphilitic treatment removed this sign
also. February 28, the man was discharged fit for light duty, with
unequal pupils and positive Wassermann reaction, and a complete amnesia
for the four weeks following his blowing up in the trenches.
_Re_ fitness for light duty, see remarks on Case 20 concerning desk
duty for certain tabetics.
_Re_ the premature or unexpectedly early appearance of neurosyphilis
under war conditions, the early claims of some authors have not been
maintained. In the above instance, the infection was at 16 and the
shell explosion occurred at 26, namely, at about the right interval for
the development of neurosyphilitic signs. Gerver states that military
service brings out the lesions of paresis earlier than they would
otherwise come. Bonhoeffer has been unable to show that cerebrospinal
syphilis is favored in its development by the exhaustion factor.
SHELL-SHOCK PSEUDOPARESIS (non-syphilitic). Recovery.
=Case 26.= (PITRES and MARCHAND, November, 1916.)
June 19, 1915, a shell exploded some distance from Lieutenant R. He
remembers the gaseous smell, the bursting of several shells nearby
and a sensation of being lifted into the air. When he recovered
consciousness, he was in hospital at Paris-Plage, covered with bruises
and scratches. They told him he had been delirious and had vomited and
spat blood.
June 24, his wife came to see him, but this visit he could not
remember. Nor could his wife at first recognize him, he was so thin. He
roused a few moments and recognized his wife, but relapsed into torpor
again. Speech was difficult and ideas confused.
A few days later he was able to rise; but his mental status grew worse,
especially as to speech and writing, the latter quite illegible. There
was insomnia, or, if he slept, war dreams.
August 7, he began a period of five months’ convalescence passed with
his family, depressed, given to spells of weeping, confined to bed or
couch, unable to “find words,” conscious of his state and troubled
about it, speaking of nothing but the war, and afraid to go out for
fear of ambuscade. There was at first a slight lameness of the right
leg. Although he could walk, he felt pain in the knee on flexing the
right leg on the thigh. He walked holding this leg in extension.
On going back to the colors, he was immediately evacuated to the
_Centre Neurologique_ at Bordeaux, January 20, 1916.
Examination found a bored, impatient, irritated man, vexed that a man
who was not sick should be sent up “_comme fou_.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account