Combat
Trauma Seen in Civil War
(Associated
Press - Feb 6 2006) A look at the
medical records of Civil War soldiers suggests post-traumatic stress disorder
existed back then, too, according to a study. The researchers
found that veterans who saw more death in battle had higher rates of postwar
illness. Younger soldiers, including boys as young as 9, were more likely than
older ones to suffer mental and physical problems after the war. "Increased
war trauma leads to increased physical and mental illness," said study
co-author Roxane Cohen Silver of the University of California at Irvine.
"That message can be applied to wars around the globe." The findings,
published in the February issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, were
drawn from pension records on more than 15,000 Union Army veterans. The
researchers examined the records, which included doctors' reports of illnesses,
to find signs of cardiac, gastrointestinal and mental health problems. Warring
soldiers have carried home psychological scars for centuries. In American wars,
the phenomenon has been called shell shock, combat fatigue and post-Vietnam
syndrome. Medical authorities first accepted PTSD as a distinct psychiatric
condition in 1980 at the urging of Vietnam veterans and their doctors. In an editorial
accompanying the new study, Dr. Roger Pitman of Harvard Medical School said the
findings "should lay to rest the notion that there was something
psychiatrically unique about the Vietnam Conflict or about what used to be
called `post-Vietnam syndrome.'" In PTSD, stress
hormones like adrenaline scorch a painful event deep into long-term memory,
scientists believe. People get edgy, fearful and prone to nightmares or
flashbacks. The study
relied on a database managed by the University of Chicago. Eric T. Dean,
author of "Shook over Hell: Post-Traumatic Stress, Vietnam, and the Civil
War," used the same records in his research. He said he is skeptical the
19th-century medical records could be made standard enough for the researchers'
statistical analysis to be valid. He also
questioned relying on the diagnoses of doctors from the 1800s. "This is a heroic effort," Dean
said. "I just think it's a stretch. Beyond proving war is hell, I just
question their nuanced conclusions
