Yesterday’s cartoon was an easy one. Today’s post is a bit tougher sell. This Day in History, 1917: “Psychiatrist reports on the phenomenon of shell shock.” These days we refer to it as PTSD. But whatever term you use, the mechanism of action is still poorly understood. What mediates between combat experience and post-trauma symptoms? Despite modern brain scan technology, that’s as much a mystery today as it was at the end of WW I.
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On this day in 1917 psychiatrist W.H. Rivers presents his report to the Royal School of Medicine. Titled “The Repression of War Experience,” the study was based on his work at the Craiglockhart War Hospital for Neurasthenic Officers. Doctors at Craiglockhart, near Edinburgh, treated soldiers suffering from psychological traumas inflicted on the battlefield.
After World War I, the army was faced with 80,000 cases of “shell shock.” The term, coined in 1917 describes the physical damage done to soldiers on the front lines during bombardment. But it soon became clear that shell shock’s various debilitating symptoms – including anxiety, nightmares, and even blindness – could afflict soldiers who never were directly under attack. Thus the definition was broadened to include psychological effects produced by combat.
Army doctors’ primary mission was to get soldiers fit and ready for battle. Nevertheless only one-fifth of those treated for shell shock ever returned to active duty.
