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 admission to the hospital he was found drowsy and dull. Fits
occurred a week later, following one another at brief intervals in
series that lasted one or two hours. The arms would be raised and
extended in clonic spasm; the patient would resist violently if held,
and then turn to his right side with rigid extension of legs and back
in opisthotonos. The eyeballs underwent irregular movements, and
there was a well marked hippus. Though the tongue was protruded in
these attacks, it was never bitten. It was doubtful whether there was
a complete loss of consciousness. Between attacks, the patient was
morose and sullen, and showed a varying incoördination of the movements
of the left leg, which was anesthetic to the knee. There was also a
glove anesthesia of the right forearm and hand. Fields of vision were
contracted.
The fits recurred with intervals of a day or two, for a fortnight. The
patient was then strictly isolated in a small room with an observation
window. His bed was made up on the floor. He then had very slight
attacks, as a rule when the nurse came into the ward; no notice was
taken of these attacks and in a fortnight they ceased. The paresis
of the leg and the anesthesia also cleared up without treatment. He
remained in the general ward three weeks longer, at first dull and
listless, but later cheerful and active. Clarke suggests that this
patient was below normal intelligence.
Shell injury with unconsciousness; delayed attacks of epilepsy:
superposed hysterical hemihypesthesia. Previous history consistent with
the hypothesis that a genuine epilepsy had been developed.
=Case 68.= (BONHOEFFER, July, 1915.)
An excellent soldier, of good build, 29 years, a member of the
_Landwehr_, passed unscathed through eleven battles in the 1914
campaign, but finally succumbed to fragments of shell which struck his
chest and the lower part of his thigh. He fell down, nauseated, and
lost consciousness. He is said to have struck about him with his arm
and to have voided urine. There was a second attack three weeks later,
in which he fell upon his face.
In the Charité Clinic he had three attacks, two of them nocturnal, one
in the daytime, followed by a long period of somnolence. He once cried
out suddenly in the night as if warding off an attack. He complained of
headaches, and was often irritated and out of humor. Somatically, there
was a hemihypesthesia on the side of the injury.
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