Post-traumatic stress disorder after World War II
By the end of WWI 65, thousands of veterans relied on pensions based on their diagnosis of Shell Shock.
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) results after experiencing or witnessing a terrifying event which later leads to mental health problems.
[2][3][5][6] By World War II, these symptoms were identified as combat stress reaction or battle fatigue.
[2][3][4] The term nostalgia was first coined in 1761 when soldiers reported feeling homesick, sleep disturbances, and anxiety after being in combat.
[2] Later, soldier's heart was used to describe these symptoms but instead blamed cardiac problems as the source of anxiety and overstimulation.
[2] Before the term post-traumatic stress disorder was established, people that exhibited symptoms were said to have shell shock[6][5][2][3] or war neuroses.
[2] There was some skepticism surrounding this diagnosis as some military leadership, including George S. Patton did not believe "battle fatigue" to be real.
[2] Yet, due to evolving practices, such as proximity, immediacy, and expectancy (PIE), this new diagnosis was taken seriously and recovery was made the first priority.
Longitudinal studies show a spike in PTSD symptoms among WWII veterans around the time of the 50th anniversary of the war.
[10] New treatment methods for PTSD emerged during WWII, likely due to the high demand for care, and the subsequent increase in investigation.
[8][7] Interestingly, despite little understanding of the mechanisms whereby PTSD happened, much of the early interventions by psychiatrists in the 1940s remain similar to the methods still used today, such as medications and group therapy.
[7][2] One early treatment plan, from 1944, suggests a three part treatment to PTSD through use of sedatives to secure rest; use of intravenous barbiturates to promote mental catharsis, thereby assisting in the recall of a suppressed episode and use of drugs acting directly on the autonomic nervous system.
[7] In addition to medication plans, another method that was utilized for PTSD during WWII was the principle of proximity, immediacy, and expectancy, or "PIE".
While first treatment plans for PTSD were crude and simplistic, they demonstrated the rapidly changing field of psychiatry that WWII initiated, as will be further discussed below.
Following WWII, the high rates of shell-shocked veterans and prisoners of war (POWs) returning home largely impacted marital relationships.
[12] Moreover, a different study found that being in active combat or on the front lines also increased likelihood of marital discord.
J.B., a WWII veteran captured at the Battle of the Bulge, was reportedly critical of himself and distracted when recalling his time in captivity.
The results of this study showed no significant difference in PTSD symptoms between survivors who were in camps versus hiding.
[8][7] This can be seen in the changing technologies and aims of the American Psychological Association (APA) during the years that the United States was fighting in WWII.
Additionally, these years in APA history represent a switch from suggesting rest to soldiers to prescribing medications and having specified treatment plans.
[8] For example, two famous military psychiatrists by the names of Roy Grinker and Frederick Hanson implemented mandatory sodium pentothal treatments, which were intended to induce the truth during psychoanalysis for soldiers claiming "exhaustion".
71 years after the Battle of the Bulge, Earl Crumby sat down with Tim Madigan in 2015 to be interviewed about his part in it.
At the time of the interview, his wife had just recently died and yet, he is quoted as saying, "as dearly as I loved that woman, her death didn’t affect me near as much as it does to sit down here and talk to you about seeing those young boys butchered during the war.
[17] This personal account of Crumby's emphasizes just how intense these experiences were/are as well as underscores the chronicity of PTSD in WWII veterans.
When Otis Mackey was interviewed by Tim Madigan in 2015, his traumatic war experiences had not diminished over the years, but rather had increased in severity.
This account from both Shultz and his daughter emphasize both the chronicity and longevity of the traumas of war as well as shows that PTSD did not just impact those with the disorder.
In April 2008, WWII veteran Grover Chapman took a taxi to his local VA hospital in Greenville, SC.
Just a few weeks later, then-president hopeful Barack Obama called this incident a ''betrayal of the ideals we ask our troops to risk their lives for".
Rintamaki, Lance S., et al. “Persistence of Traumatic Memories in World War II Prisoners of War.” Journal of the American Geriatrics Society (JAGS), vol.
“Group Therapy with WWII Ex-POW: Long-Term Posttraumatic Adjustment in a Geriatric Population.” American Journal of Psychotherapy, vol.
