Notes

It has been recommended to the NATIONAL COMMITTEE FOR MENTAL HYGIENE that it bring to the attention of neurologists and psychiatrists in private practice the serious danger to which many psychiatric patients are exposed by induction into the army and the potential danger of their disturbance to the morale of soldiers with whom they are associated.

It is suggested that the physician who has present or former patients who are facing military selection and who are known to have personality difficulties reflected in neuroses, psychoneuroses, or psychotic behavior, and for whom the physician's considered judgment raises a real question as to their ability to maintain their present emotional balance or usefulness for military service, that he take such steps as he deems ethical and effective to forestall induction. It is, of course, most desirable if the patient can be induced to accept professional advice to be protected from traumatic experiences during selection for army life.

In one state the psychiatrist writes to the medical officer of the State Selective Service office stating that John Doe has been a patient diagnosed so and so. The medical officer then writes the local board to the effect that, from satisfactory evidence in hand, the registrant is unsuitable and is to be classified IV-F. This procedure protects the physician and forestalls an examination and an upsetting diagnosis. One physician writes regularly in such cases: 'I have material that would be of interest to your board in case John Doe comes before it for consideration'. In larger cities where there is a chief medical officer for Selective Service, communications should be addressed to him rather than to the state office.

Suggestions that may be useful in coping with this problem, or formulæ for dealing with individual patients which have been found productive of results should be communicated to George S. Stevenson, M.D., Medical Director, National Committee for Mental Hygiene, 1790 Broadway, Ne