Glossary / History of psychiatry
Syphilis
An infection caused by a spiral-shaped bacterium, Treponema pallidum. It spreads mainly by sex and, after many years, can attack the brain and nerves.
In the nineteenth century it was known that many patients with general paresis had earlier had syphilis. Whether syphilis was the cause was nevertheless disputed for a long time, because many years passed between the infection and the paresis and because the syphilis treatments of the day did nothing for paresis[1].
In 1906 Wassermann and his colleagues published a blood test[2], and in 1913 Hideyo Noguchi and J. W. Moore found the organism inside the brains of patients who had died of general paresis[1].
Related terms
- General paresisA disease caused by the syphilis organism entering the brain. Mental symptoms such as memory loss and delusions advance together with bodily ones such as slurred speech and tremor.
- Cerebrospinal fluidThe clear fluid that surrounds the brain and spinal cord. A small sample can give clues to diseases of the brain and nerves.
Sources
- H. Noguchi, J. W. Moore, “A Demonstration of Treponema pallidum in the Brain in Cases of General Paralysis,” Journal of Experimental Medicine 17(2), 232–238 (1913).
- A. Wassermann, A. Neisser, C. Bruck, “Eine serodiagnostische Reaktion bei Syphilis,” Deutsche Medizinische Wochenschrift 32(19), 745–746 (1906).