Evening star., 1943-07-05
|Cure Found
Hills at Front
BY THOMAS r. HENRY,

Ills OC
BY THOMAS r. HENRY,
Star staff Correspondent.
ALLIED HEADQUARTERS IN
NORTH AFRICA, July 3.-An
amazingly simple" front-Nne treat
ment Of nervous mental breakdowns
developed here returns so to 10
per cent Of the men treated to the
fighting service in four days and
they return voluntarily. This treat
ment, the greatest advance in
military psychiatry and also the
greatest manpower saver yet known
was described today by 1t. Col.
Perrin H. Long of Johns Hopkins
University, now medical director
in the North African theater.
The method is this:
Psychiatrists go into the front
lines with the men and in so far
as possible keep them under OBJ
servation. As soon as q soldier
shows signs OF going to pieces the
psychiatrist gives him sedative pills
and orders him to an evacuation
hospital a few miles behind the
lines.
There he gets a shot in the arm
to cause a long sleep and is given
good meal as soon as he wakes
up. When he wakes, a psychiatrist
is at the side of his cot and talks
calmly to the soldier. 1t is not
necessary to use psychoanalysis.
Simple reasoning is enough. If the
case is difficult, the soldier is given
intravenous drug injections to re-
lease his inhibitions and to cause
him to tell of his troubles freely.
Some are sent back the second day.
They usually ask to 90 back by the
fourth day.
Erroneously Called Shellshock.
These are enormously called she'll
shock cases, Col. Long said. Shell.
fire has nothing to do with them.
Men salvaged completely as fighting
soldiers are usually those without
psychiatric background either in
their heredity or their civilian life
before joining the Army. Nervous
breakdowns at the front are due to
WEAKNESS and fear in vicious cir
Gle. All men are afraid, Col. Long
said, and they will eventually break
down under enough stress.
The old system was to evacuate
such cases at once to base hospitals
far behind the lines for nerve treat
ments. There the mental casualties
were ION their backs like magnets
pulling in fears from their sur
roundings and developing more and
more symptoms" Col. Long said.
Dulling the sensitivities at once
with sedatives prevents this.
The other 20 to 80 per cent unable
to go back into the line usually have
unstable nervous systems and pos
sibly have psychiatric backgrounds.
Those who have been given the
same treatment but who do not re-
spond well are sent back from the
front for further treatment but at
the same time are given easy. safe
Jobs to occupy their minds and give
them a feeling of confidence and
self-respect.
Few Fail to Make Good.
In the last war those sent home
for hospital treatments often be.
came permanent nervous invalids.
With the present treatment few
fail to make good, Col. Long said.
thus releasing men for combat.
Further, the men are beneflting
themselves. The system avoids a
sense Of disgrace and mental symp-
toms. A small residue is found to
be composed Of men hopeless for
war purposes; the investment in
their training complete loss.
OF all the casualties of the last
war, the mental cases comprise the
biggest veteran load today. These
mental cases have cost the Govern
ment more than $1,000,OOO 900 in
the past 25 years, with the biggest
burden to come as the men get
older. The present system promises
to reduce this to minimum. With
this system operating during the
last three months Of fighting here,
the front-line psychiatrist now rates
with the front line surgeon in i'm
portance.
Reports from other theaters Of
this war give gruesome accounts OF
cases worse than those arising from
the last war, this in spite Of the
fact that the quality of the men is
higher. The method used here was
partly suggested by psychiatrists at
home, but the details were deveI.
oped by psychiatrists in actual com.
bat. Col. Long, whose subject Is
not psychiatry but preventative
medicine, said that it is the biggest
medical development in the North
African theater salvaging hundreds
Of soldiers and probably saving tax
payers millions in the years to come.
Il Duce Tells Fascists