Today we discussed the impact of a modern, weaponized war on the individual soldiers who fought in WWI between 1914 - 1918. During the early stages of World War I in 1914, soldiers from the British Expeditionary Force began to report medical symptoms after combat, including tinnitus, amnesia, headaches, dizziness, tremors, and hypersensitivity to noise. While these symptoms resembled those that would be expected after a physical wound to the brain, many of those reporting sickness showed no signs of head wounds. At the end of 1914 as many as 10% of British officers and 4% of enlisted men were suffering from "nervous and mental shock". They were diagnosed with a new, 20th century condition called "shell shock." The term "shell shock" was named for the symptoms and the effects of explosions from artillery shells.
Some doctors began to note that shell shock as an emotional, rather than a physical, injury. Evidence for this point of view was provided by the fact that an increasing proportion of men suffering shell shock symptoms had not been exposed to artillery fire. It was not until the 2nd half of the 20th century that the symptoms of shell shock were validated and better understood by doctors. Today the condition is widely known as PTSD.