ORTHOPEDIC SURGERY IN THE ARMY AIR FORCES DURING WORLD WAR II: III. Psychologic Problems, Convalescent Care and Rehabilitation

PSYCHOLOGIC PROBLEMS  THROUGHOUT World War II, it was repeatedly urged that all medical officers learn psychiatric principles. Menninger¹ stated: "... whether a medical officer is a battalion surgeon, or an orthopedist in a hospital, a dispensary physician or an induction board examiner, he will have numerous occasions when he must exercise psychiatric judgment. Probably more truly than in civilian life, every medical officer is faced with personality deviations." Military orthopedic surgeons soon came to realize there was no alternative to learning more about the psychiatric aspect of orthopedic problems. A steady stream of patients presenting psychogenic musculoskeletal symptoms was referred to orthopedic sections. In the beginning, the disability in many of these patients was labeled organic, and they were given long periods of hospitalization and intensive orthopedic therapy, which occasionally included surgical treatment. Gradually the true character of the disability in these patients was discovered. As time passed and experience