21. The Realization That Torture to Cure PTSD Was a Bad Idea Came Too Late for Thousands of Sufferers
It was widely accepted by both military and civilian psychiatrists during WWI – and for years afterward – that de facto torture was a good idea in treating shell shock. Dr. Edgar Douglas Adrian eventually had second thoughts about the treatment he had pioneered when he discovered that it did not prevent relapses. After the war, he came to realize that shell shock – by then renamed “war hysteria”, was more complex than initially thought. Adrian eventually understood that the physical shaking and tics often associated with shell shock were just some of the symptoms.
Insomnia, depression, headaches, and irritability were among the other symptoms. Adrian figured that electric shock was at best a partial solution, that could only remove some motor or sensitive symptoms, and often only temporarily. As he wrote about his new line of reasoning: “Obviously there is still something wrong and the removal of bodily symptom has not been enough“. Unfortunately, it was too late. By then torturing the shell-shock out of sufferers with electric shock was in wide practice, and the controversial treatment continued in use for many more years.
