Title: War Surgery and Medicine

Author: Stout, T. Duncan M.

Publication details: Historical Publications Branch, 1954, Wellington

Part of: The Official History of New Zealand in the Second World War 1939–1945

This text is the subject of: ‘Something of Them Is Here Recorded’: Official History in New Zealand

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Cases as Seen on Hospital Ship Returning to New Zealand

From experience of psychoneurotic cases on the Hospital Ship Maunganui during the first two voyages in 1941, Captain Aiken noted that the number of cases developing in men who had never been engaged in fighting was highly significant, and in not a few symptoms were apparent before arrival in Egypt. The number of psychotic cases was small, no more than would be present in a similar civilian group, and the earliest symptom was often a tendency to delinquency.

In a survey of the cases of anxiety neurosis he found that half were over thirty-five years of age, the largest group being forty years and over. Of the fifty-five cases, a history of previous breakdown occurred in 20 and a family history in 22. Less than half the cases had been engaged in Greece and Crete and the rest had had no battle experience, but 60 per cent had had eighteen months in the Army.