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Dr Joachim Müllner (Psychiatrist)
Tomorrow, June 6, 2024, the numerous commemorations of the 80th anniversary of the landing in Normandy will begin. This American military operation of exceptional scale will change the course of the Second World War, but will cause numerous deaths and injuries. How is the resulting post-traumatic stress disorder defined for soldiers and victims and what is its long-term impact? Dr Joachim Müllner, psychiatrist, answers us.
Exceptional commemorations will take place on June 6, 2024 on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the Normandy landings. These celebrations, tinged with pride, memories, but also suffering, will be an opportunity to remember that more than 10,000 soldiers lost their lives, not counting civilian losses. A significant trauma of which some still retain traces today. Doctissimo interviewed Dr Joachim Müllner, psychiatrist, to find out more about post-traumatic stress syndrome and its consequences.
“THE post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a psychiatric disorder caused by exposure to a situation of serious danger to oneself or to a third party. first defines Joachim Müllner, psychiatrist at the Hôtel-Dieu in Paris. “This disorder can develop immediately following exposure to the trauma or which can develop subsequently.”
This syndrome is marked by a particular symptomatology:
- Reviviscences, which are “flashbacks during the day and nightmares at night where the person relives the traumatic scene as if they were experiencing it at the time with intense emotions, and very vivid images which invade the person” specifies Joachim Müllner;
- Hypervigilance, with “the brain is in a permanent state of alert and stimuli that would normally have gone unnoticed become a source of alert for the person. specifies the expert. “This leads to significant distrust, anxietystartles and even false recognitions (the brain which first thinks it recognizes the aggressor before realizing that it is an error)”;
- Avoidance of thoughts (the person tries as best they can not to think about the traumatic event), situations (the person avoids all situations that could remind them of the trauma), or place (avoidance of the place of aggression).
A syndrome particularly observed among soldiers of the two world wars
In the West, the formalization of this clinical picture was particularly carried out by military doctors who observed this symptomatology in many soldiers deployed during the two world wars. “They were victims of exposure to scenes of incredible violence, exposing themselves and their comrades to a risk of death and serious injury. explains the psychiatrist again.
But although the picture is clearer, the support remains lacking. “For many years people returned from the war with totally insufficient support, the State distributing medals and leaving the soldiers to their own devices in their daily lives which will never be the same again, this lack of support load that can lead to a worsening and chronicization of the symptoms”.
What is the long-term impact of post-traumatic stress disorder?
When PTSD is not properly managed, complications such as addictions – which are often a form of self-medication later complicated by drug dependence – arise. “Social and emotional isolation, an inability to resume a professional activity or to remain in social contact even with one’s family, and depression with a risk of death by suicide are also found. explains the doctor.
“Wars therefore cause dramatic physical injuries but also particularly painful and disabling psychological disorders in the long term. finally recognizes the psychiatrist, “which remain, even today, too little diagnosed and too little taken care of”.
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