PTSD: A Short History by Allan V. Horwitz (review)

With evidence from casualty statistics collected after World War II and during the Vietnam conflict, psychiatrists increasingly attributed causality to the traumatic event. [...]Mott identified a third group who were healthy individuals subjected to “terrifying or horrifying conditions,” soldiers wh...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Bulletin of the history of medicine 2019-04, Vol.93 (1), p.144-146
Main Author: Jones, Edgar
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Armed forces
Biology
Brain damage
Causality
Post traumatic stress disorder
Psychiatrists
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:With evidence from casualty statistics collected after World War II and during the Vietnam conflict, psychiatrists increasingly attributed causality to the traumatic event. [...]Mott identified a third group who were healthy individuals subjected to “terrifying or horrifying conditions,” soldiers whose record demonstrated that they are “neither of a timid disposition” or possessed of “any neuropathic tendency” and for whom the event was the primary cause.1 Although Horwitz describes the momentum behind research into the limbic system designed to identify the neuro-biology of PTSD, more detail could have been given on the hypotheses and findings in the search for an organic explanation. A high percentage of those with mild traumatic brain injury also report the symptoms of PTSD, prompting the hypothesis that microscopic brain lesions may account for both disorders.
ISSN:0007-5140
1086-3176
1086-3176
1896-3176
DOI:10.1353/bhm.2019.0022