Hostname: page-component-5c6d5d7d68-txr5j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-08-15T12:22:47.642Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Korsakov's psychosis precipitated by convulsive seizures in chronic alcoholics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 February 2018

P. J. F. Walsh
P. J. F. Walsh*
Affiliation:
St. Bernard's Hospital, Southall, Middlesex
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Dementia, of several types, has long been known as one of the possible fates of the alcoholic. Since Gigon and Odermatt (1925) and Shattuck (1928) called attention to the likeness between alcoholic polyneuritis and that found in beriberi evidence has accumulated of the part played by lack of B vitamins. It is now accepted that Wernicke's encephalopathy is identical with cerebral beriberi (de Wardener and Lennox, 1947) and results primarily from a deficiency of thiamine. The same brain lesions are found in Wernicke's encephalopathy and Korsakov's psychosis, allowing for the length of the illness (e.g., Victor et al., 1952; Malamud and Skillicorn, 1956) and Victor and Adams (1961) consider that Korsakov's psychosis in alcoholics is the psychic manifestation of Wernicke's encephalopathy.

Type
Clinical
Information
Journal of Mental Science , Volume 108 , Issue 456 , September 1962 , pp. 560 - 563
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1962 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Baron, J. H., and Oliver, L. C. (1958). Lancet, i, 354.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barrie, H. J. (1947). Lancet, ii, 278.Google Scholar
Best, C. H., and Taylor, N. B. (1950). Physiological Basis of Medical Practice, p. 936.Google Scholar
Cowgill, G. R. (1934). The Vitamin B Requirements of Man. New Haven.Google Scholar
Gigon, A., and Odermatt, H. (1925). Z. ges. exp. Med., 47, 294.Google Scholar
Goodman, L. S., and Gilman, A. (1955). The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics, p. 1694.Google Scholar
Himwich, H. E. (1956). (Section in) Alcoholism, ed. Thompson, G. N., p. 304.Google Scholar
Isbell, H., et al. (1955). Quart. J. Stud. Alcohol., 16, 1.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jung, R. (1949). Arch. Psychiat. Nervenkr., 183, 206.Google Scholar
Ketel, A. P. (1950). Ned. Tijdschr. Geneesk., 94, 1724.Google Scholar
Kety, S. S., and Schmidt, C. F. (1948). J. Clin. Invest., 27, 476.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Malamud, N., and Skillicorn, S. A. (1956). Arch. Neurol. Psychiat., 76, 585.Google Scholar
De Morsier, G. (1951). Progr. Med., 72, 347.Google Scholar
Nolle, S. (1952). Med. Klin., 47, 833.Google Scholar
Shattuck, G. C. (1928). Amer. J. trop. Med., 8, 539.Google Scholar
Thompson, R. H. S., and Cumings, J. N. (1957). (Section in) Biochemical Disorders in Human Disease, ed. Thompson, R. H. S. and King, E. J., p. 410.Google Scholar
Victor, M. et al. (1952). Tr. Am. Neurol. A., 77, 178.Google Scholar
Idem, and Adams, R. D. (1953). Res. Publ. Ass. Nerv. Ment. Dis., 32, 545.Google Scholar
Iidem , (1961). Am. J. Clin. Nutrition, 9, 379.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
de Wardener, H. E., and Lennox, B. (1947). Lancet, i, 11.Google Scholar
Williams, R. R., and Spies, T. D. (1938). Vitamin B1 and its Use in Medicine. New York.Google Scholar
Wright, S. (1952). Applied Physiology, p. 492.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.