brendan kelly - shell shock and its treatment at dublin’s richmond war hospital, 1916-1919’

Shell Shock and its Treatment at Dublin’s Richmond War Hospital, 1916-19

Brendan Kelly

University College Dublin

1. The Richmond Asylum (1814)

2. Shell shock

3. The Richmond War Hospital (1916)

4. Cases of shell shock

5. Treating shell shock

6. Legacy of the Richmond War Hospital

1. The Richmond Asylum (1814)

2. Shell shock

3. The Richmond War Hospital (1916)

4. Cases of shell shock

5. Treating shell shock

6. Legacy of the Richmond War Hospital

Hallaran’s 1810 textbook, along with evidence of increasing rates of insanity, prompted authorities to build the Richmond Asylum, 1814

1851.00 1861.00 1871.00 1881.00 1891.00

Year

4000.00

6000.00

8000.00

10000.00

12000.00

14000.00

16000.00

Number

Mental illness

Intellectual disability

Dr Richard Leper at St Patrick’s Hospital, reported that two admissions during ‘the height of the rebellion’ were ‘produced by shock and terror caused by the insurrection’ In one case, the army ambulance ‘was fired on whilst conveying the patient to the Hospital’

1. The Richmond Asylum (1814)

2. Shell shock

3. The Richmond War Hospital (1916)

4. Cases of shell shock

5. Treating shell shock

6. Legacy of the Richmond War Hospital

Battle of the SommeJuly – November 19161 million killed or seriously wounded

Major CS MyersCBR, FRS

1873-1946

Popularised the term ‘shell shock’

Lancet, 1915 

1. The Richmond Asylum (1814)

2. Shell shock

3. The Richmond War Hospital (1916)

4. Cases of shell shock

5. Treating shell shock

6. Legacy of the Richmond War Hospital

Base Hospital No. 26France

Injured servicemen with nurses in the village hall in Shepreth, South Cambridgesshire, used as military hospital, 1915-19

Croydon

Discharged, ‘quite rational’, after five weeks

`Spent eight months as a prisoner of war

Craiglockart War Hospital, Edinburgh (1916-19)

Siegfried Sassoon, 1886-1967 Wilfred Owen, 1893-1918

Dr WHR Rivers, 1863-1922

1. The Richmond Asylum (1814)

2. Shell shock

3. The Richmond War Hospital (1916)

4. Cases of shell shock

5. Treating shell shock

6. Legacy of the Richmond War Hospital

Journal of Mental Science 1925; 71: 219-24

0.5% returned to military duty

1. The Richmond Asylum (1814)

2. Shell shock

3. The Richmond War Hospital (1916)

4. Cases of shell shock

5. Treating shell shock

6. Legacy of the Richmond War Hospital

War Neuroses: Netley Hospital (1917), part 4 of 5https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ah2f9VabEYE

Journal of Mental Science 1917; 63: 297-9

Shower bath, Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane, 1868

HydrotherapySt Elizabeth’s Asylum Washington DC

Ludwig Knorr 

Antipyrine (pheanzone)

1. The Richmond Asylum (1814)

2. Shell shock

3. The Richmond War Hospital (1916)

4. Cases of shell shock

5. Treating shell shock

6. Legacy of the Richmond War Hospital

The legacy of the Richmond War Hospital to the Irishasylum system and efforts at reform during the 1900s

1 High discharge rates2 Better conditions

3 Patients not certified ‘insane’; RMS Donelan:

The legacy of the Richmond War Hospital to the Irishasylum system and efforts at reform during the 1900s

The broader effects of the network of war hospitalsthroughout Great Britain and Ireland, including theRichmond, on the identity and practice of psychiatry

The legacy of the Richmond War Hospital to the Irishasylum system and efforts at reform during the 1900s

The broader effects of the network of war hospitalsthroughout Great Britain and Ireland, including theRichmond, on the identity and practice of psychiatry

The legacy of the Richmond War Hospital to Ireland’smemory and commemoration of the First World War,and its psychological effect on Irish soldiers

1929

14 April 2014

Byrne says his abiding memory of growing up on Rialto Street was his father waking, screaming, in the middle of the night – terror that his son believes was caused by the trauma of the war

Irish Times, 5 April 2014

Great grandfatherSylvester Cummins

1914Royal Dublin Fusiliers 

1916Battle of the Somme

‘Survived the war, but not its consequences’

‘Suicide by gas poisoning, there being no evidence to showstate of mind’

Shell Shock and its Treatment

at Dublin’s Richmond War Hospital,

1916-19

brendankelly35@gmail.com