Evolution of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome is a very new term. It was only in the First World War that psychiatric syndromes first came to be associated with military combat. Until then, it was assumed that such causalities were due to cowardice or lack of discipline. The First World War found that the explosion of shells caused not just physiological damage but also symptoms called ‘shell shock,’ and that there was a connection between psychological stress and combat.

During the Second World War, psychiatric causalities increased by 300 percent, as compared to the First World War. At one point in the war, the number of men being evacuated for psychiatric reasons exceeded the total number of new recruits.

During the Korean War, a new method of dealing with psychiatric breakdown was devised. Instead of evacuating affected individuals, they were given immediate onsite treatment so that they could return to duty as soon as possible. Evacuations due to psychiatric reasons dropped from 23 percent in the Second World War, to 6 percent in the Korean War.

During the Vietnam War, battlefield breakdown was as low as 12 per thousand. But in 1973, when direct American troop involvement in Vietnam ended, the number of veterans with psychiatric disorders began to increase tremendously. They began to show symptoms such as intense anxiety, battle dreams, depression, and problems with interpersonal relationships long after their combatant role in the Vietnam War had ceased.

These symptoms were linked to those shown by people affected by disasters such as earthquakes and airplane crashes, and are now referred to as Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome.

Resources:

Learn more about the history of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Seek help for Post-Traumatic Stress Diorder.

Discover how post-traumatic stress can indirectly affect children.

May 24, 2003