Wagner-Jauregg, << VAHG nur YOW rehk, >> Julius (1857-1940), also known as Julius Wagner von Jauregg, was an Austrian psychiatrist and neurologist. He won the 1927 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine. Wagner-Jauregg was awarded the prize for his discovery of a treatment for the disease of general paresis, also called syphilitic meningoencephalitis, an often fatal mental condition connected with the sexually transmitted disease syphilis.
Early in his medical career, Wagner-Jauregg had noticed that patients suffering from certain long-term mental disorders improved if they contracted a fever. After limited success in earlier experiments, he tried injecting patients suffering from paresis with a mild form of malaria, which could be controlled with the drug quinine. This treatment was highly successful. Although the treatment is no longer used, Wagner-Jauregg’s experiments led to the development of shock therapy.
Wagner-Jauregg was born in Wels, Austria. In 1874, he entered Vienna University to study medicine. From 1874 to 1880, he studied for his doctorate at the Institute of General and Experimental Pathology. In 1883, he joined the psychiatric staff at the University of Vienna. From 1889 to 1893, he was professor of psychiatry and neurology at the University of Graz and, from 1893 to 1928, he held the same position at the University of Vienna.
See also Shock treatment ; Syphilis .
