Open AccessConfederates in the Attic
Author(s) -
J. Douglas Bremner,
Matthew T. Wittbrodt,
Amit Shah,
Bradley D. Pearce,
Nil Z. Gurel,
Omer T. Inan,
Paolo Raggi,
Tené T. Lewis,
Arshed A. Quyyumi,
Viola Vaccarino
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
the journal of nervous and mental disease
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.749
H-Index - 123
eISSN - 1539-736X
pISSN - 0022-3018
DOI - 10.1097/nmd.0000000000001100
Subject(s) - battlefield , etiology , depression (economics) , psychiatry , psychology , unconscious mind , abnormality , psychological intervention , combat stress reaction , psychoanalysis , medicine , economics , macroeconomics , history , ancient history
Da Costa originally described Soldier's Heart in the 19th Century as a syndrome that occurred on the battlefield in soldiers of the American Civil War. Soldier's Heart involved symptoms similar to modern day posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as well as exaggerated cardiovascular reactivity felt to be related to an abnormality of the heart. Interventions were appropriately focused on the cardiovascular system. With the advent of modern psychoanalysis, psychiatric symptoms became divorced from the body and were relegated to the unconscious. Later, the physiology of PTSD and other psychiatric disorders was conceived as solely residing in the brain. More recently, advances in psychosomatic medicine led to the recognition of mind-body relationships and the involvement of multiple physiological systems in the etiology of disorders, including stress, depression PTSD, and cardiovascular disease, has moved to the fore, and has renewed interest in the validity of the original model of the Soldier's Heart syndrome.