August Deter was born in 1850. She lived in Frankfurt and was married to a railway official. Until 1901, when he was fifty-one, he lived an unremarkable life. However, that year, his and his family’s lives changed completely.
Some time later, her husband described how, before that moment, she had been a diligent, organized, and perhaps a little nervous woman. But from March 1901, living with her became impossible; she became excitable, forgetful and aggressive. She accused her husband of walking with neighbors, but that was not the case and he started making mistakes when cooking. It was not unusual for him to find her restless and aimless wandering around the house.
On the left we can see Alois Alzheimer. On the right is a photo of August Deter, who is believed to be one of the first known patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Photo: Wikimedia Commos
He often goes through periods of irritabilityHe hid items in various parts of the home and frantically knocked on neighbors’ doors at inopportune times. Chaos has taken hold of the Deter family.
On November 25, 1901, her husband Karl, overwhelmed by the incident, decided to admit her to a center for patients with mental disorders: the Frankfurt Psychiatric Hospital.
The doctor has been working at the center since 1988. Alois Alzheimerdoctor Obsessed with the idea that brain disease is exactly the same as organic disease.
August, just August
A handwritten history of Dr. Alzheimer’s first meeting with his patient August has been preserved.
The patient sat on the bed, looking helpless.
- What is it called?
- August.
- What’s your last name?
- August.
- What’s her husband’s name?
- August, I think.
It seems you didn’t understand the problem.
It didn’t take long for Dr. Alzheimer to realize that he was faced with a classic case., a patient suffering from a then-unknown disease. Over the next few months, August showed a marked inability to generate new memories and suffered from recurring delusions and hallucinations.
To calm the symptoms, without a diagnosis, Alzheimer’s doctors prescribe the most diverse treatments.from baths (soaking in hot and lukewarm water for several hours) to sleeping pills (2 to 3 grams of chloral hydrate, which causes some degree of sluggishness).
Without a clear diagnosis, August Deter eventually died in hospital on April 8, 1906, five years after his admission.. At that time, Dr. Alzheimer no longer worked at the center and had been assigned to Munich, but he continued to monitor patients closely. When he learned of the death, he asked hospital leaders to send him the complete clinical history and brain so that he could study it carefully.
at that time It was observed that, at a microscopic level, there was an accumulation of brain plaques and neurofilaments in August’s brain.a finding that had never been observed before and could explain his disease.
The second case is male
Some time later, Alzheimer personally treated a patient hospitalized at the Royal Psychiatric Clinic, known as John FeiglHe was 56 years old at the time, and his medical history reminded him of many of August’s experiences.
The patient died of pneumonia at the age of 59, and similar findings were seen at autopsy. Compared to those found in Mrs. Det’s brain, although they were certainly not identical, there were no tangles, “just brain plaques.”
Neuron (3D model). – BlackJack3D/iStock
The fact is, it must be said, that this discovery confused Alzheimer’s because it made him wonder whether he was dealing with the same disease with two different mutations, or on the contrary, whether these were two different diseases.
We currently know that people with this neurodegenerative disease produce two types of proteins.: β-amyloid and tau proteins. Over the course of the disease, both accumulate and form structures we call plaques and tangles, respectively.
These deposits cause neurons to stop functioning properly., lose contact and eventually die. The damage initially occurs at the level of the hippocampus, the area of the brain responsible for memory formation, but over time, as neurons die, more parts of the brain are affected. These areas shrink, eventually causing widespread damage.
Today, more than a hundred years have passed since German psychiatrist Auguste Deter discovered the disease that bears his name in a woman who was also the first to be diagnosed with it. People with this disease.
refer to:
- Collar, Pedro. History of Medicine. Pinollia Press, 2023.
- Nitrini, R. Historical evolution of the concept of dementia and major associated diseases. In: Brucky S, Magaldi R, Morillo L, Carvalho I, Perroco T, Machado C, et al. Dementia, a multidisciplinary approach. Sao Paulo: Athens New Press; 2011.