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

Abstract

This study seeks to discover whether the medically unexplained symptoms experienced by soldiers after combat is similar across the century. An extensive historical literature review has been undertaken of all published data on the subject and a standardised historical medical record' has been designed to gather information about soldier's personal history, military service, symptoms, pensions, medical investigations and diagnoses. We have computerised Public Record Office catalogues for the Boer War and First World War pension files which has enabled us to select two suitable diagnoses for each war and the generation of a random selection of cases. We have collected 200 cases of Disordered Action of the Heart (DAH) and 200 cases of psychogenic rheumatism from the Boer War (1899-1902) and 200 cases of DAH and 200 cases of neurasthenia and shell shock from the First World War. The first 600 cases of which have been entered onto our database. A detailed survey of the Second World War and subsequent archives has proved more time consuming than anticipated for reasons outwith our control. We believe however the complexity and high quality of the archived records made available to us will enable satisfactory conclusions to be drawn from this study.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 01, 1999
Accession Number
ADA363718

Entities

People

  • Ian P. Palmer

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Anxiety Disorders
  • Civil War
  • Databases
  • Diseases And Disorders
  • First World War
  • Health Services
  • Infectious Diseases
  • Literature Surveys
  • Medical Personnel
  • Military Medicine
  • Pain
  • Psychiatry
  • Rheumatic Diseases
  • Second World War
  • Traumatic Stress Disorder
  • War

Fields of Study

  • Medicine

Readers

  • Gulf War Illness and Chronic Multisymptom Illness in Veterans.
  • Military History of the United States in the 20th Century.
  • Systems Analysis and Design