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
Manual tremors and general pains developed in the next few days. Two
weeks after the accident a slight nystagmus on looking to the left
appeared, but there was otherwise no disorder of head or extremities.
He was able to sit up, supported by his arms, and he was able to
contract his abdominal muscles normally. As for his legs, active
movements were limited and weak. He could not lift his legs. The
paralysis was more marked distally. He could walk with the support of
two persons, but was unable to lift his feet from the ground. The right
upper abdominal reflex was elicited, and both patellar reflexes were
tolerably active. Cremasteric and plantar reflexes were absent. Neither
of the Achilles jerks could be produced. There was hypesthesia and
hypalgesia of the lower extremities, and of the back up to a horizontal
line corresponding with the ninth dorsal segment; thermo-hyperesthesia
and disorder of vibration sense in the lower legs. Both the motor and
the sensory disorders were more marked on the right than the left.
Insomnia and battle dreams.
The gait disorder and paresis gradually improved. There was no
alimentary glycosuria and adrenalin produced no mydriasis. In the
course of several weeks the patient gained seven kilograms, began to
sleep well and showed gradual improvement in his gait and in the
execution of various movements with his feet. The abdominal reflexes
were now both present, but there were no plantar reflexes and the
Achilles were still both absent. The sensory disorder remained
unchanged, so far as the skin was concerned, but the deep sensibility
improved. Both legs from the knee down were somewhat cold.
This man had had syphilis at twenty-two, had gone through an inunction
cure, and repeated W. R.’s came through negative. He had suffered from
vomiting spells and anxiety feelings for a number of years which had
been diagnosed by physicians as cardiac neurosis. Yet for a year before
going into the war he had felt absolutely well.
Shell-explosion: Amnesia; syphilitic hemiplegia. Recovery except for
amnesia as to brief period and loss of occupational skill.
=Case 28.= (MAIRET and PIÉRON, July, 1915.)
A man of 40 underwent shell shock June 15, 1915, and had no remembrance
of what happened up to July, 1915, when in hospital at Tunis he felt
“born again.”
Examined in January, 1916, it was found that he had a left hemiplegia
(in fact, he had a syphilitic hemiplegia on that side, several years
before, which had disappeared under antisyphilitic treatment). This
hemiplegia passed, but he then had crises of depression due to his
despair at not being able to know who he was and what he was doing.
He could speak French and Spanish, and knew from the hospital ticket
that he was born in Spain; but he had no idea what had happened to
his relatives or what he was doing in France. He had, however, a very
correct idea of what happened during six months after July, 1915.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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