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GSN Magazine June 2016 Digital Edition

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Hazmat Science and Public Policy with George Lane<br />

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)<br />

is Caused by Physical as well as<br />

Psychological Trauma<br />

By George Lane<br />

During World War 1, the psychological<br />

trauma of soldiers from<br />

concussions was attributed to the<br />

impact of exploding shells, causing<br />

“shell shock”, a term that first appeared<br />

in the British medical journal<br />

The Lancet in February 1915,<br />

only six months after the beginning<br />

of World War 1. “Shell shock” was<br />

characterized by “the dazed, disoriented<br />

state many soldiers experienced<br />

during combat or<br />

shortly thereafter”. 1 It<br />

was presumed that soldiers<br />

who experienced<br />

these symptoms were<br />

weak so treatment was<br />

brief with the “firm expectation<br />

that the soldier<br />

return to duty”. 2 However, even<br />

soldiers who were not exposed to<br />

exploding shells were experiencing<br />

similar symptoms.<br />

Because sixty-five percent of<br />

“shell-shocked” soldiers ultimately<br />

returned to the front lines, treatment<br />

was considered a success.<br />

However, another reason for this<br />

success was that if they didn’t return<br />

to the front, their own soldiers<br />

could kill them. Between 1914 and<br />

1918, the British Army identified<br />

80,000 men with what would now<br />

be defined as the symptoms of “shell<br />

shock”. Some who suffered from severe<br />

“shell shock” deserted. If caught<br />

they received a court martial and<br />

if sentenced to death were shot by<br />

a twelve-man firing squad. During<br />

In 2012, neuropathologist Dr. Daniel<br />

Perl was examining a slide of human<br />

brain tissue when he saw a distinctive<br />

pattern of tiny scars.<br />

14<br />

World War 1, 346 British and Commonwealth<br />

soldiers were executed<br />

for “desertion and cowardice”. 3<br />

The use of executions as a form<br />

of discipline during World War 1<br />

was summed up by British General<br />

Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien: “There<br />

is a serious prevalence of desertion<br />

to avoid duty in the trenches, especially<br />

in the<br />

8th Brigade,<br />

and I am sure<br />

that the only<br />

way to stop it is to carry out some<br />

death sentences”. As many as 700<br />

French soldiers were executed for<br />

similar offenses while only 48 of the<br />

150 German soldiers condemned<br />

by military courts were shot during<br />

World War 1. Paradoxically the<br />

abolition of flogging, one<br />

of the few progressive features<br />

of British reforms,<br />

contributed to the use of<br />

execution in World War<br />

1. 4 Until the conflict in<br />

Vietnam, psychiatrists<br />

believed that “shell shock” was the<br />

result of emotional problems rather<br />

than physical injury of the brain.<br />

However in 2012, neuropathologist<br />

Dr. Daniel Perl was examining<br />

a slide of human brain tissue when<br />

he saw a distinctive pattern of tiny<br />

scars. Perl had previously examined<br />

tissue from 20,000 brains for

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