A Study of Acute Neurotic Depression as Seen in Military Psychiatry and its Differential Diagnosis from the Depressive Psychoses

Extract

Depression or dysphoria in its various forms is probably the commonest single symptom encountered in military psychiatry, and its differential diagnosis is often a matter of extreme difficulty: The author's observations, based on three years' experience as psychiatrist in a military psychiatric hospital, have shown that of a large number of cases admitted with a diagnosis of “depressive psychosis,” by far the greater proportion are not psychotic at all, but are cases of an acute reactive neurotic disturbance, characterized by a variety of mixed anxiety, hysterical and psychopathic features, and combined with a marked disturbance in the sphere of affect and personality.