War Syndromes from 1900 to the Present: Symptom Patterns and Longterm Health Outcomes

摘要

This historical study of the nature of war syndromes investigates their essential characteristics by use of war pension files. It looks at randomly-selected populations of UK servicemen drawn from the Boer War, World War One, World War Two, Korea, Malaya and the Persian Gulf War. The diagnoses studied include: DAH, effort syndrome, rheumatism, neurasthenia, shell shock, dyspepsia, psychoneurosis and Gulf-related illness. These war syndromes are related to nature of recruit, rank, type of unit, exposure to combat and other traumatic experiences and to military conduct. Veterans' health records were examined to discover whether war syndromes were related to wounds or other forms of illness acquired during service. In addition, servicemen's attributions are also explored in relation to prevailing health beliefs and advances in medical science. A mortality and morbidity study of randomly selected veterans of World War One compared a sample suffering from DAH and a sample diagnosed with neurasthenia/shell shock with ex- servicemen awarded a pension for minor gunshot wounds. The controls were matched by rank, level of disability and region of the UK.