Shell-shock blindness: Cure by a course of injections in the temple.
Case 521. (Bruce, May, 1916.)
A soldier from Gallipoli was admitted to the Royal Victoria Hospital at Edinburgh, blind. He had been at Gallipoli from May 1, 1915, until August 12, when a shell explosion blew in his trench and buried him. He was dug out nervous and tremulous. Shortly afterwards there was the bright flash of a second shell, and amnesia set in until he found himself in hospital. He could not see at all with the left eye and the sight of the other was poor. He arrived in Scotland, October 9. He was nervous, excitable and now somewhat depressed, complaining of blindness and pain in the left eye, and headache. The left eyelid drooped. The fundus was normal. He had not been given an anesthetic.
It was explained to him that the eye had not been injured; that it had become weak from the explosion; that he would be given a series of injections into the left temple of a strong drug which would restore the sight of the eye.
Gradually increasing quantities of normal saline solution were given every morning. After four days he said that the treatment was doing him good. A week later he said that the eye was much stronger. After the fifteenth injection he could not sleep. The headache was worse, and there was “moving about inside his head.” Early in the morning he went to sleep after a period of restlessness. He awoke at eight o’clock able to see perfectly, and was overjoyed at the result. There was some blurring and four days later he said he was becoming blind again. More normal saline was injected, causing pain. After that there was no relapse, and the man was sent back to his unit.
Re Shell-shock blindness, Ormond and Hurst recommend a light hypnosis; taking the functionally blind man into a dark room and requesting him to make his mind a blank. Some cases are refractory. An anesthetic may be used with suggestion in the semi-conscious stage.