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
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Inspect source passages
What Queen Square notes show about shell shock
These passages occur verbatim in the stored paper text. They support the points listed below; they do not verify every statement in the explanation.
They examined all 462 servicemen admitted with functional neurological disorders, 1914–19.
This paper explores the case notes of all 462 servicemen who were admitted with functional neurological disorders between 1914 and 1919.
1,212 soldiers were treated at the National Hospital from 3 August 1914 to 31 December 1919, 45 percent of male admissions.
Between 3 August 1914 and 31 December 1919, 1212 soldiers were treated at the National Hospital, accounting for 45% of all male admissions.
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.
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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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