Alzheimer, Alois, << AWLTS hy muhr, AH loys >> (1864-1915), a German psychiatrist and neurologist, is remembered for his description of a degenerative brain disease that occurs mainly in elderly people. In rare cases, the condition can affect people under 60 years of age. In its advanced stages, the disease causes severe memory loss, anxiety, disorientation, and speech disorders. A sufferer may no longer be able to recognize family and friends and cannot cope with ordinary life. This condition is now known as Alzheimer’s disease (see Alzheimer’s disease ).
Alzheimer was born in Markbreit, Germany, on June 14, 1864. He studied medicine at the universities of Wurzburg and Berlin. He obtained clinical jobs at hospitals in Frankfurt and Heidelberg. In 1904, he became head of the anatomy department at the clinic of psychiatrist Emil Kraepelin in Munich.
In 1907, Alzheimer performed an autopsy (medical examination of a dead body) on a patient at the Munich clinic who had died after suffering from severe dementia (deterioration of the mind). During the autopsy, Alzheimer noted certain brain abnormalities. These abnormalities, which indicated the degeneration of brain cells, are now recognized as characteristic of Alzheimer’s disease.
In 1912, Alzheimer became professor of psychiatry and neurology at the University of Breslau, Germany (now Wroclaw, Poland). He carried out work on the preparation of brain tissue for microscopic slides. Alzheimer died on Dec. 19, 1915.
