Hysterical motility disorders during the First World War: cases from the orthopaedic department of the Red Cross Hospital in Zagreb

This paper examines how Vladimir Ćepulić at the orthopaedic department of the Red Cross Hospital in Zagreb described, understood and treated hysterical motility disorders between 1915 and 1917.

We analysed Ćepulić’s article from 1919 on 107 cases of motility disorders among World War I veterans. Our analysis involved a formal examination of historical records, articles, and contemporary literature on conversion disorders, as well as a contextual analysis of Ćepulić’s work.

Ćepulić’s report is a rare record of patients with conversion disorder treated within an orthopaedic department during the First World War. It provides detailed descriptions and documentation including photographs. By subscribing to the hysterical aetiology of this disorder, Croatian orthopaedists employed a diverse range of treatments, such as hypnosis, suggestion, electricity, anaesthesia and surgery.

We have demonstrated that a significant number of patients with motility disorders of psychogenic origin were treated at the orthopaedic department of the Red Cross Hospital in Zagreb. The detailed descriptions left by our predecessors can be used to trace the epidemiology and evolution of these disorders over time, including complex conditions like conversion disorder.