Post-traumatic stress disorder after World War II
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WWII lasted from September 1st, 1939 until September 2nd, 1945. The death toll during WWII has been estimated to be between 35,000,000 and 60,000,000. However, the exact number is unknown. With all those fatalities, it should not be surprising that it left so many lasting effects on the survivors. There have been many terms for these lasting effects over the decades. These terms include, but are not limited to, shell sock and combat fatigue. In 1980, the diagnosis of PTSD was added to the newly published DSM 3.
A History of PTSD
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder(PTSD) was officially classified as a mental illness with the publication of the DSM 3 in 1980. However, you can trace records of PTSD symptoms back to ancient times. Modern records of PTSD can be traced back to the U.S. Civil War. Returning Civil War soldiers were reported as having a disordered palpitation of the heart, also known as soldier heart. Unexplained palpitations of the heart could categorize this. At the time, it was primarily associated with access to alcohol and tobacco usage. Today, distorted heart palpitation is considered one of the first combat-related PTSD symptoms. Following the Civil Wars, suicide rates among Union soldiers doubled. War neurasthenia was used to describe an undefined weakness in the nervous system. With WWI came the new diagnosis of Shell Sock. This new diagnosis theorized that compression and decompression of the brain due to being near explosions were the cause of various somatic symptoms. Under the shell shock terminology, a more psychological etiology. It was recognized that veterans often experience flashbacks and nightmares in association with their time in service. By the end of WWI 65, thousands of veterans relied on pensions based on their diagnosis of Shell Shock. At the end of WWII, up to 3% of WWII veterans were receiving government-based disability benefits due to neuropsychiatric diseases.
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) results after experiencing or witnessing a terrifying event which later leads to mental health problems.[1] This disorder has always existed but has only been recognized as a psychological disorder within the past forty years.[2][3][4] Before receiving its official diagnosis in 1980, when it was published in the third edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-lll),[2] Post-traumatic stress disorder was more commonly known as soldier's heart, irritable heart, or shell shock.[2][3][4][5][6] Shell shock and war neuroses were coined during World War I when symptoms began to be more commonly recognized among many of the soldiers that had experienced similar traumas.[2][3][5][6] By World War II, these symptoms were identified as combat stress reaction or battle fatigue.[2][3][6] In the first edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-I), post-traumatic stress disorder was called gross stress reaction which was explained as prolonged stress due to a traumatic event.[2] Upon further study of this disorder in World War II veterans, psychologists realized that their symptoms were long-lasting and went beyond an anxiety disorder.[2][7] Thus, through the effects of World War II, post-traumatic stress disorder was eventually recognized as an official disorder in 1980.[2][3][4]