Shell shock
In World War I, many soldiers had psychological problems. These kinds of problems are known as post-traumatic stress disorder (or PTSD) today. The term post-traumatic stress disorder is relatively new.[2] At the time, people such as Charles Samuel Myers called this condition shell shock. [3] Shell shock is a reaction to bombardment and fighting. Soldiers who were affected often felt helpless. Very often they panicked, were scared, and tried to flee. They were also unable to reason, sleep, walk or talk.[4]
| Shell shock | |
|---|---|
| Other names | Bullet wind, soldier's heart, battle fatigue, operational exhaustion[1] |
 | |
| Australian station, near Ypres, in 1917. The soldier on the left has a dazed expression and a steady stare which are two common signs of shell-shock | |
During the War, people did not agree on what exactly shell shock was. Some people interpreted it as a physical or psychological injury, others said it was a lack of morale. In 2021, the Department of Veterans Affairs still used the term shell shock to describe certain parts of PTSD. In most cases, the term is no longer used, except for very specific injuries which occurred during the war.
From World War II onwards, people were no longer diagnosed with shell shock: The new term used was combat stress reaction: this is a similar but not identical response to the trauma of warfare and bombardment.
Modern cases of shell shock
As outlined, the term shell shocked is used in the context of World War I, to describe early cases of what is called PTSD today. As it is a reaction to the detonation of high-impact explosives, it also has modern uses.
When they were in Iraq and Afghanistan, approximately 380,000 U.S. troops, about 19% of those deployed, were estimated to have sustained brain injuries from explosive weapons and devices.[5] This prompted the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to open up a $10 million study of the blast effects on the human brain. The study revealed that, while the brain remains initially intact immediately after low level blast effects, the chronic inflammation afterwards is what ultimately leads to many cases of shell shock and PTSD.[6]
Related pages
References
- ↑ "Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) - Doctors Lounge(TM)". www.doctorslounge.com. Archived from the original on 2022-11-28. Retrieved 2021-07-31.
- ↑ "Is Shell Shock the Same as PTSD?". Psychology Today.
- ↑ "A Short History of The British Psychological Society" (PDF). British Psychological Society. British Psychological Society. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 March 2019. Retrieved 9 November 2019.
Although he later came to regret it, it was Myers who coined the term 'shell shock'
- ↑ Hochschild, Adam (2012). To End All Wars - a story of loyalty and rebellion, 1914-1918. Boston, New York: Mariner Books, Houghton, Mifflin Harcourt. pp. xv, 242, 348. ISBN 978-0-547-75031-6.
- ↑ "The Shock of War". Smithsonian. Retrieved 2019-02-13.
- ↑ "Preventing Violent Explosive Neurologic Trauma (PREVENT)". www.darpa.mil. Retrieved 2019-02-13.
Sources
- Coulthart, Ross. The Lost Diggers, Sydney: HarperCollins Publishers, 2012. ISBN 9780732294618ISBN 9780732294618
- Jones, E, Fear, N and Wessely, S. "Shell Shock and Mild Traumatic Brain Injury: A Historical Review". Am J Psychiatry 2007; 164:1641–1645
- Hochschild, Adam. To End all Wars - a story of loyalty and rebellion, 1914-1918 Mariner Books, Houghton, Mifflin Harcourt, Boston, New York, 2011. ISBN 978-0-547-75031-6ISBN 978-0-547-75031-6
- Leese, Peter. Shell Shock. Traumatic Neurosis and the British Soldiers of the First World War, Palgrave Macmillan, 2014. ISBN 978-1-137-45337-2ISBN 978-1-137-45337-2.
- Mcleod, A.D. "Shell shock, Gordon Holmes and the Great War" J R Soc Med. 2004 February; 97(2): 86–89.
- Myers, C.S. "A contribution to the study of shell shock". Lancet, 1', 1915, pp. 316–320
- Shephard, Ben. A War of Nerves: Soldiers and Psychiatrists, 1914-1994. London, Jonathan Cape, 2000.
- Wessely, S. The Life and Death of Private Harry Farr Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, Vol 99, September 2006