Centre for Policy on Ageing



War pensions (1900-1945) — changing models of psychological understanding
Author(s)	Edgar Jones, Iia Palmer, Simon Wessely
Journal title	British Journal of Psychiatry, vol 180, April 2002
Pages	pp 374-379
Keywords	War pensions ; Mental disorder ; Central government departments and agencies ; Attitude.
Annotation	World War I is said to be the first conflict for which pensions were widely granted for psychological disorders as distinct from functional, somatic syndromes. In 1939, official attitudes hardened, and it is commonly stated that few pensions were awarded for post-combat syndromes. The authors re-evaluated the recognition of psychiatric disorders by the war pension authorities, by comparing official statistics with samples of war pensions files from the Boer War, and the First and Second World Wars. Official reports tended to over-estimate the number of awards. Although government figures suggested that the proportion of neurological and psychiatric pensions was higher after World War II, the authors' analysis suggests that the rates may not have been significantly different. The acceptance of psychological disorders was a response to cultural shifts, advances in psychiatric knowledge, and the exigencies of war. Changing explanations were both a consequence of these forces and themselves agents of change. (RH).
Accession Number	CPA-021120204 A
Classmark	JHW: E: PC: DP
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...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.