Alois Alzheimer

Alois Alzheimer ( born June 14, 1864 in market wide ( Lower Franconia ), † December 19, 1915 in Breslau) was a German psychiatrist and neuropathologist and the first to describe a dementing disorder is named after him today to Alzheimer's disease.

Life

Alois Alzheimer was the eldest son of the second marriage of the notary Eduard Alzheimer's and his wife Barbara Theresa Busch, a sister of the deceased first wife in 1862, Eva -Maria bush. After attending school in broad market and the Kronberg -Gymnasium in Aschaffenburg Aschaffenburg Alois Alzheimer began to study medicine at the University of Würzburg, he - after a layover at the University of Tübingen - there in 1888 with a grade of "very good" ending. In 1884, he became active in the Corps Franconia Wuerzburg. His 1887 completed, only 17 -page dissertation dealt with the function of " earwax glands ". 1888 Alzheimer competed successfully as a junior doctor in of the psychiatrist Heinrich Hoffmann - established " Municipal Asylum for the Insane and Epileptic " in Frankfurt am Main - also known as the author of Struwwelpeter stories. By joining forces, the head of the institution, Emil Sioli, his chief physician Franz Nissl and Alzheimer introduced a new method of treatment for the mentally ill that they "non -restraint " known as and whose essential feature was the avoidance of straitjackets, forced feedings and other means of coercion. Instead, the treatment of the sick bed was introduced in large halls wax, later the therapy particularly restless patients practiced by warming duration baths whose water temperature was monitored by the staff. Some patients were allowed to move freely in the park of the hospital, while others were even taken to excursions in the area.

1894 Wilhelm Erb asked him to come to Algeria and to examine his patient Otto Geisenheim, Frankfurt a diamond merchant. He suffered and died of softening of the brain was later named after Alzheimer's. Alzheimer fell in love with the widow Cecilie Geisenheim and returned with her ​​back to Frankfurt. From Alzheimer unchallenged, the Jew stepped over to the Protestant faith and married in February 1895 Alzheimer church. From this marriage the children Gertrude, Hans and Maria were born. The following period was characterized by familial happiness and job satisfaction. 1901 Cecilie Alzheimer diseased and died on 28 February of the same year. To cope with his grief over here to Alzheimer plunged into the work.

Auguste Deter

On November 25, 1901 met the Alzheimer's patient, that would make him famous: Auguste Deter. Her husband took her to the hospital after she had changed significantly within a year. She had become jealous of the simplest things could no longer perform in the household, hidden objects, felt persecuted and importuned intrusive neighbors. The medical record of Auguste D. was rediscovered in 1996 in the archive of the psychiatric hospital in Frankfurt am Main.

Alzheimer logged - as always - the first data and findings. He asked:

At noon Mrs. Auguste D. eats pork with cauliflower.

Alzheimer noted that the patient had no orientation over time or location, could barely remember details from their lives and often gave answers that bore no relation to the question and otherwise remained unconnected. Auguste's moods alternated rapidly between fear, distrust, rejection, and tearfulness, they could not let you go alone through the rooms of the clinic, as they tended to take all other patients in the face, and was beaten for it by them. It was not the first time that Alzheimer encountered the image of complete mental confusion - in previous cases he had always had similar findings, but those attached no importance, because the patients were often nearly 70 years and older. Auguste Deter made ​​him curious, because at the time of her admission she was only 51 years old. The next few weeks were marked by further patient interviews, which made the heavy mental confusion evident and were accompanied by Auguste repeated with a wailing, "Oh God." In an interview she said repeatedly: "I have lost myself so to speak, " - she was obviously aware of her helplessness. Alzheimer's was the disease a name: "The disease of forgetfulness ".

The year 1902 brought another turning point: Alzheimer Frankfurt was behind and was at the Psychiatric University Hospital in Heidelberg, a research assistant to Professor Emil Kraepelin, who took him to his appointment in 1904 to Munich. Here Alzheimer completed in the same year his habilitation thesis Histological studies on the differential diagnosis of progressive paralysis. Research, scientific publications and lectures dominated this time. Nevertheless, he had Auguste Deter not forgotten. He regularly asked in Frankfurt about her health and prevented their planned cost reasons, transfer to another hospital, because he really wanted to once again examine this patient - after her death.

On April 9, 1906 Alzheimer suffered at his workplace in Munich a sudden call from Frankfurt: Auguste Deter died. Alzheimer's, the medical record and the brain of the patient was send. The record showed that Auguste Deter mental condition had deteriorated dramatically in the past few years. Cause of death was due to pressure ulcers ( bed sores ) caused blood poisoning. Microscopic examination of the brain showed area-wise gone to basically nerve cells and protein deposits (called plaques) throughout the cortex. On November 3, 1906 Alzheimer's presented at a conference in Tübingen which was later named after him disease as a disease before. Discussion messages to a stunned colleagues shaft stayed away. When Alois Alzheimer in 1911 examined his deceased patient, Johann F. the brain, he found striking changes. These are now referred to as " plaque -only " variant of dementia. Alzheimer's is it fixed similar tissue changes in the brain even in cases of senile dementia. He comes to the conclusion that senile dementia is a later onset and slower running variant of the disease described by him in 1906. This view has led to the present day to the erroneous distinction between senile and presenile dementia.

Breslau

Alzheimers life last stop was Breslau. At the Silesian Friedrich Wilhelm University, he became the successor to Karl Bonhoeffer as a full professor ( thanks to the intercession of his teacher Kraepelin, as the favorite for this place was Eugen Bleuler in Zurich have been ) and was director of the "Royal Psychiatric and Mental Hospital ". 1915 there was a rapid decline of his health. Heart problems, kidney failure and respiratory distress pointed to a swift end. On December 19, 1915, he died surrounded by his family. He was buried in the main cemetery in Frankfurt beside his wife.

Writings

• About a peculiar disease of the cerebral cortex, gen. Zschr. Psychiat. , 64, ( pp.146 -148 ), Georg Reimer, Berlin 1907
• The war and the nerves, Preuss & disciples, Wroclaw 1915