Adler mentions the Afghan Wars in a flashback scene. Dr. Watson served in the Second Afghan War in the original Doyle stories.
While Ms. Adler is being Treated at the hospital, The doctor tells Sherlock and Watson that she had been psychologically tormented by a person named Stapleton. He also shows them a sketch that closely resembles a dog. Jack Stapleton was the villain in Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Homes story "The hound of the Baskervilles"