War pensions (1900-1945): changing models of psychological understanding.

Br J Psychiatry

Department of Psychological Medicine, Guy's, King's and St Thomas' Medical School, London, UK.

Published: April 2002

Background: War pensions are used to examine different models of psychological understanding. The First World War is said to have been the first conflict for which pensions were widely granted for psychological disorders as distinct from functional, somatic syndromes. In 1939 official attitudes hardened and it is commonly stated that few pensions were awarded for post-combat syndromes.

Aims: To re-evaluate the recognition of psychiatric disorders by the war pension authorities.

Method: Official statistics were compared with samples of war pension files from the Boer War and the First and Second World Wars.

Results: Official reports tended to overestimate the number of awards. Although government figures suggested that the proportion of neurological and psychiatric pensions was higher after the Second World War, our analysis suggests that the rates may not have been significantly different.

Conclusions: The acceptance of psychological disorders was a response to cultural shifts, advances in psychiatric knowledge and the exigencies of war. Changing explanations were both a consequence of these forces and themselves agents of change.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://dx.doi.org/10.1192/bjp.180.4.374DOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

war
8
war pensions
8
models psychological
8
psychological understanding
8
psychological disorders
8
war pension
8
pensions 1900-1945
4
1900-1945 changing
4
changing models
4
psychological
4

Similar Publications

This article explores the life and work of Dr Caroline F. Hamilton, one of the pioneering female physicians sent from the USA to the Ottoman Empire in the late 19th century. Over a career spanning three decades, Hamilton provided critical medical care, especially to women, at the Azariah Smith Memorial Hospital in Aintab, overcoming legal, cultural, and political obstacles to become one of the first women licensed to practise medicine in the region.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: This article offers unique insight into Team Ukraine's experiences of attending an international sporting event for veterans living with disability and injured active-duty personnel (the United States' Department of Defense Warrior Games, "The Games") and a 5-week preparatory camp in the United Kingdom (UK).

Methods: A survey gathered qualitative data at three time points: during the second and final week of training camp, and the in the two weeks immediately following participation at The Games. Forty-four out of 55 members of Team Ukraine (including veterans, active-duty personnel, support staff, and family members) provided responses in Survey 1, 20 in Survey 2, and 18 in Survey 3.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Historical Overview of Tsutsugamushi Disease in Japan before World War II.

Infect Chemother

December 2024

Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Internal Medicine, Inha University School of Medicine, Incheon, Korea.

Tsutsugamushi disease is a febrile mite-borne disease caused by . Before 1945, this disease had been prevalent in Niigata, Akita, and Yamagata prefectures for centuries, occurring in areas along major rivers in these prefectures every summer about a month after floods. The patients affected were farmers, possibly new settlers on reclaimed lands, who contracted the disease following bites of tiny red bugs.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: At the beginning of 2022, Central Europe entered a state of emergency due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Nurses were particularly vulnerable to a decline in their professional quality of life, facing repeated exposure to military trauma, ethical dilemmas, prolonged working hours, and increased stress and fatigue. This study aimed to contribute to our understanding of the potential mediating effect of war-related continuous traumatic stress on the association between moral distress and professional quality of life, including compassion satisfaction and compassion fatigue, represented by burnout and secondary traumatic stress.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

On October 7, 2023, a large-scale attack in southern Israel and the subsequent war resulted in extensive loss of life and injuries, with many individuals experiencing traumatic losses, such as family members or close friends being killed or kidnapped. This study aims to longitudinally examine its effects on mental health, specifically, clinical symptoms of anxiety, depression, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). We anticipated greater symptom severity among individuals who experienced traumatic loss, were forcibly displaced, or suffered income loss, as well as among women and members of ethnic minorities.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!