What Queen Square notes show about shell shock
Linden and Jones analyse 462 National Hospital case files and find motor-heavy “functional” syndromes, few psychogenic seizures versus Germany, and almost no malingering labels.
Source
'Shell shock' revisited: an examination of the case records of the National Hospital in London
Study at a glance
- Design
- Qualitative / archival — Coded analysis of National Hospital functional neurological case files, 1914–1919
- N
- N=462 · 462 servicemen with functional neurological disorder of 1,212 military admissions
- Population
- Military patients at London’s National Hospital during World War I
- Outcome
- Motor-heavy functional syndromes, rare psychogenic seizures vs Berlin, and few malingering labels
Structured fields used in claim comparison tables when every cited study has a complete layer.
What they did
They coded biographical data, service history, symptoms, diagnoses, and outcomes for every serviceman admitted with functional neurological disorder from 1914 to 1919 (462 of 1,212 military admissions).
What they found
Motor and sensory loss dominated; anxiety/depression and autonomic symptoms were common; psychogenic seizures were rarer than in Berlin (about 3.5 times less). Labels shifted from shell shock/traumatic neurosis toward functional disorder and, by 1918, hysteria. Average stay was 69 days; 83 percent were privates.
The limits
What it doesn't show
No follow-up proves cures lasted; officers are under-counted (separate hospitals; private notes lost). The files cannot settle organic versus psychical aetiology, only how Queen Square recorded and treated cases.
Key terms
- National Hospital, Queen Square
- Britain’s leading neurology hospital; about a third of beds went to military cases by war’s end.
- Functional disorder
- Queen Square’s preferred descriptive label when no organic lesion was found.
- Shell shock
- Early-war term largely dropped after official restriction; rare in 1917–18 notes.
- Yealland
- Junior officer later famous for electrical treatment; the notes show a wider treatment repertoire.
- Psychogenic seizures
- Non-epileptic fits; much less recorded at Queen Square than in German tertiary centres.
Flashcards
Research intelligence for this paper
See its role on concept claims, tensions it is part of, placement history, and related discoveries.
Quiz yourself
The functional series numbered:
Common questions
How many functional military cases did they read?
462 servicemen, 1914–19.
What share of military admissions was that?
38 percent of 1,212 soldier admissions (45 percent of all male admissions were military).
How long did functional cases stay, on average?
Sixty-nine days, versus fifty-three days before the war.
Did Queen Square discharge anyone as a malingerer?
Not a single patient in this series.
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