The relationship between the First World War and neurology: 100 years of “Shell Shock”

Abstract

The First World War was a global war, beginning on 28 July 1914, until 11 November 1918. Soon after the beginning of the war, there was an "epidemic" of neurological conversion symptoms. Soldiers on both sides started to present in large numbers with neurological symptoms, such as dizziness, tremor, paraplegia, tinnitus, amnesia, weakness, headache and mutism of psychosomatic origin. This condition was known as shell shock, or "war neurosis". Because medically unexplained symptoms remain a major challenge, and considering the close relationship of symptoms described in shell shock with clinical neurology, we should study their history in order to improve future care.

Trauma, Traumatization and Adverse Environments in War and Armed- Conflict

“…Among Australian soldiers surviving the Vietnam-war related co-morbidities included gastrointestinal, hepatic, cardiovascular, and respiratory systems, sleep disorders, and laboratory pathology markers of health deterioration [2]. The eventual terminology that was applied for these traumatic and completely unpredictable condition could alternate between such relatively innocuous formulations such as "shell shock" or "war neurosis" to demeaning expletives, formulated invariably by the general staff of the allied nations, like "lack of moral fibre" and "absence of moral turpitude" not least due to the paucity of informed understanding and the plethora of medically unexplained symptoms and somatic disruptions [3].…”