Shell-shock and other neuropsychiatric problems

Chapter 157: Case 142. (Tombleson, September, 1917.)

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About This Book

The work assembles nearly six hundred clinical case histories drawn from wartime medical literature to document combat-related neuropsychiatric disorders. It presents concise case protocols illustrating varied symptom patterns, diagnostic dilemmas, malingering and simulation, therapeutic interventions, and treatment outcomes, and includes bibliographic references and introductory commentary. Sections juxtapose cases to illuminate contested diagnoses and to inform postwar rehabilitation and mental-hygiene efforts, aiming to provide clinicians and reconstruction workers with detailed clinical material for recognizing, classifying, and managing neuropsychiatric consequences of war.

Hyperthyroidism.

Case 142. (Tombleson, September, 1917.)

A private, 22, was selected by Col. Garrod for hypnotic treatment by Tombleson from among the hyperthyroid cases. He was admitted April 3, 1916, with a typical hyperthyroidism, with manual tremor, enlarged thyroid, pulse 120, blood pressure 136-40, and hemic murmur. Tombleson induced deep somnambulism at the first hypnotic sitting and suggested an increase of nerve strength and steadiness. The suggestions under somnambulism were repeated for ten days. An occasional added suggestion was given as to lessening of the thyroid. At the end of the ten days the patient declared himself quite well.

Eight of twenty consecutive functional cases treated by hypnotism by Tombleson were cases of hyperthyroidism and in virtually all of these an effect like the above was registered.