Alzheimer's disease historical perspective

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Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]

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Discovery

Auguste D, first described patient with AD

Although the concept of dementia can be traced as far back as the ancient Greek and Roman philosophers and physicians,[1] it was in 1901 when Alöis Alzheimer, a German psychiatrist, identified the first case of what became known as Alzheimer's disease in a fifty-year-old woman he called Auguste D. Alöis Alzheimer followed her until she died in 1906, when he first reported the case publicly.[2] In the following five years, eleven similar cases were reported in the medical literature, some of them already using the term Alzheimer's disease.[1] The official consideration of the disease as a distinctive entity is attributed to Emil Kraepelin, who included Alzheimer’s disease or presenile dementia as a subtype of senile dementia in the eighth edition of his Textbook of Psychiatry, published in 1910.[3]

For most of the twentieth century, the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease was reserved for individuals between the ages of 45 and 65 who developed symptoms of dementia. The terminology changed after 1977 when a conference concluded that the clinical and pathological manifestations of presenile and senile dementia were almost identical, although the authors also added that this did not rule out the possibility of different etiologies. This eventually led to the use of Alzheimer's disease independently of onset age of the disease.[4][5] The term senile dementia of the Alzheimer type (SDAT) was used for a time to describe the condition in those over 65, with classical Alzheimer's disease being used for those younger. Eventually, the term Alzheimer's disease was formally adopted in medical nomenclature to describe individuals of all ages with a characteristic common symptom pattern, disease course, and neuropathology.[6]

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 Berchtold NC, Cotman CW (1998). "Evolution in the conceptualization of dementia and Alzheimer's disease: Greco-Roman period to the 1960s". Neurobiology of Aging. 19 (3): 173–189. doi:10.1016/S0197-4580(98)00052-9. PMID 9661992.
  2. Auguste D.:
    • Alzheimer Alöis (1907). "Uber eine eigenartige Erkrankung der Hirnrinde" (in Template:De icon). 64 (1–2): 146–148.
    • Alöis Alzheimer (1987). "About a peculiar disease of the cerebral cortex. (Translated by L. Jarvik and H. Greenson)". Alzheimer Disease and Associated Disorders. 1 (1): 3–8. PMID 3331112. Unknown parameter |origdate= ignored (|orig-year= suggested) (help)
    • Maurer Ulrike, Maurer Konrad (2003). Alzheimer: the life of a physician and the career of a disease. New York: Columbia University Press. p. 270. ISBN 0-231-11896-1.
    • Hochberg Fred H., Rottenberg David (1977). Neurological classics in modern translation. New York: Hafner Press. ISBN 0-02-851180-8.
  3. Kraepelin Emil, Diefendorf A. Ross (translated by) (2007-01-17). Clinical Psychiatry: A Textbook For Students And Physicians (Reprint). Kessinger Publishing. p. 568. ISBN 1-4325-0833-4.
  4. Boller F, Forbes MM (1998). "History of dementia and dementia in history: an overview". Journal of Neurological Science. 158 (2): 125–133. doi:10.1016/S0022-510X(98)00128-2. PMID 9702682.
  5. Katzman Robert, Terry Robert D, Bick Katherine L (editors) (1978). Alzheimer's disease: senile dementia and related disorders. New York: Raven Press. p. 595. ISBN 0-89004-225-X.
  6. Amaducci LA, Rocca WA, Schoenberg BS (1986). "Origin of the distinction between Alzheimer's disease and senile dementia: how history can clarify nosology". Neurology. 36 (11): 1497–1499. PMID 3531918.