Who Discovered Alzheimer's Disease?

A German physician named Alois Alzheimer discovered Alzheimer's disease in 1906. During the course of his studies of the brain, he identified this new disease, which was later named after him.

Education

• Dr. Alzheimer was born in 1864 in Bavaria. He studied medicine in Berlin, Aschaffenburg Tubingen and Wurzburg. He received his medical degree in 1887. He became interested in the human brain after working at the Frankfurt state asylum, and began to study neuropathology and psychiatry.

Publications

• Dr. Alzheimer wrote a study on the pathology of the nervous system titled "Histologic and Histopathologic Studies of the Cerebral Cortex." He also published numerous other papers on the pathology of the brain.

Work History

• Dr. Alzheimer was appointed director of the asylum where he worked in 1895. He performed research on a variety of subjects there, including schizophrenia and manic depression. In 1903, Dr. Alzheimer became a research assistant to Emil Kraepelin at the Munich medical school, in order to combine research and clinical practice.

First Case

• Dr. Alzheimer first discovered Alzheimer's disease in a patient of his called "Frau Auguste D.," a woman in her 50s who experienced memory loss, disorientation, hallucinations and early death. After her death, Alzheimer examined her brain and observed senile plaques, a thinner-than-normal cerebral cortex and, using a new staining technique, neurofibrillary tangles. Alzheimer presented his work with Auguste D. at a scientific meeting in 1906, and published it in 1907.

Naming the Disease

• In 1910, Emil Kraepelin proposed naming this new disease after Alzheimer.