A 200-year history of Alzheimer's disease

Abstract

The word "dementia" originates with Dr. Philippe Pinel of France. Back in 1801, Pinel reported a young female patient, aged 34, who was exhibiting some strange symptoms for someone in her age group. Pinel described this woman's condition as "demence", or an incoherence of mental faculties. It was believed that the term "dementia" came from this association. More than a century later (1906), Dr. Alois Alzheimer published a paper on one of his patients who had very similar symptoms and behaviors as Pinel's patient. This description, of a woman known as Auguste D, was the first scientific report of the disease now known as Alzheimer's disease. It is now clear that Alzheimer's disease is a major cause of dementia in elderly people as well as in relatively young adults. Research in the last two centuries has led to a greatly improved understanding of what Alzheimer's disease is, who gets it, and how it develops and affects the brain. Those works are beginning to pay off with better diagnostic techniques, improved treatments, and even potential ways of preventing these diseases.

doi: 10.3969/j.issn.1672-6731.2014.03.003