Auguste Deter
Auguste Deter | |
---|---|
Alzheimer's | |
Spouse |
Carl August Wilhelm Deter
(m. 1873) |
Auguste Deter (German pronunciation: [aʊ̯ˈɡʊstə ˈdeːtɐ], née Hochmann; 16 May 1850 – 8 April 1906) was a German woman notable for being the first person to be diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.
Life
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Auguste was born in
Auguste's father died when she was young. Even though Auguste's family was impoverished, she was well-educated. She attended school in Cassell, and it is speculated that she may have been a student of Dr. Alois Alzheimer's grandfather, Johann. He was a schoolmaster in Cassell during the time Auguste attended school. Further education was not possible for Auguste due to social norms and her family's financial situation.
Auguste started work as a full-time seamstress assistant at the age of 14. She continued this career until she married Carl August Wilhelm Deter on 1 May 1873, at the age of 23.
In 1888, Carl began work as a railway clerk. After marrying Carl, Auguste moved to Frankfurt, Germany, where she was a full-time housewife. Carl described their marriage as "happy and harmonious". The couple had one daughter named Thekla.
Auguste became ill in the spring of 1901 at the age of 50. She was admitted to a psychiatric hospital later that year in November, where she lived for the rest of her life.
Auguste and Carl were married for 33 years until her death on 8 April 1906 at the age of 55, just five weeks shy of her 56th birthday.[1]
Onset of disease
During the late 1890s, Auguste exhibited a rapid escalation in
As a railway worker, Carl was unable to provide adequate care for his wife and was given recommendations by a local doctor to admit her into a mental hospital. She later was admitted to a mental institution, the Institution for the Mentally Ill and for Epileptics (Irrenschloss) in Frankfurt on 25 November 1901. There, she was examined by Dr. Alois Alzheimer.
Carl visited Auguste whenever possible, though he struggled to make payments for her care and stay. It would have been more financially efficient to spend the time at work. Having difficulty keeping up with the payments, Carl continued insisting on getting her into a more affordable facility. Such a transfer would remove Auguste from Alzheimer's care, but Carl continued to persist in transferring Auguste. When asking Alzheimer for an arrangement of hospital transfers, Alzheimer discouraged him from such a decision; instead, he offered him an agreement for her to continue to receive care without cost in exchange for her medical records and brain after death, to which Carl gave a signed consent.[3]
Treatment
Dr. Alzheimer asked her many questions, then later asked again to see if she would remember. He asked her to write her name. She tried to, but would forget the rest and repeat: "I have lost myself." (German: Ich habe mich verloren.) He later put her in an isolation room for a while. When he released her, she would run out screaming, "I will not be cut. I do not cut myself."[4]
After many years, she became completely addled with dementia, muttering to herself. She died on 8 April 1906. More than a century later, her case was re-examined with modern medical technologies, where a
Alzheimer concluded that she had no sense of time or place. She could barely remember details of her life and frequently gave answers that had nothing to do with the question and were incoherent. Her moods changed rapidly between anxiety, mistrust, withdrawal and 'whininess.' They could not let her wander around the wards because she would accost other patients who would then assault her. It was not the first time that Dr. Alzheimer had seen a complete degeneration of the psyche in patients, but previously the patients had been in their seventies. Deter piqued his curiosity because she was much younger. In the weeks following, he continued to question her and record her responses. She frequently responded, "Oh, God!" and, "I have lost myself, so to say." She seemed to be consciously aware of her helplessness. Alzheimer called it the "Disease of Forgetfulness".
Death and legacy
In 1902, Alzheimer left the Irrenschloss (Castle of the Insane), as the Institution was known colloquially, to take up a position in
Rediscovery of medical record
In 1996, Dr. Konrad Maurer and his colleagues, Drs. Volk and Gerbaldo, rediscovered the medical records of Auguste Deter.[9] In these documents, Dr. Alzheimer had recorded his examination of his patient, including her answers to his questions:
"What is your name?" "Auguste." "Family name?" "Auguste." "What is your husband's name?" - she hesitates, finally answers: "I believe... Auguste." "Your husband?" "Oh, my husband." "How old are you?" "Fifty-one." "Where do you live?" "Oh, you have been to our place." "Are you married?" "Oh, I am so confused." "Where are you right now?" "Here and everywhere, here and now, you must not think badly of me." "Where are you at the moment?" "We will live there." "Where is your bed?"
"Where should it be?"
Around midday, Deter ate pork and cauliflower.
"What are you eating?"
"Spinach." (She was chewing meat.) "What are you eating now?" "First I eat potatoes and then horseradish." "Write a '5'." [German: fünf] She writes: "A woman" [Frau] "Write an '8'." [acht]
She writes: "Auguse" (sic, while she is writing she repeatedly says, "I have lost myself, so to say.")
References
External links
- Works by or about Auguste Deter at Internet Archive
- Alois Alzheimer Who Named It?
- Alzheimer's: 100 years on
- Alois Alzheimer's Biography. International Brain Research Organization
- Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Laboratory for Neurodegenerative Disease Research – Prof. Dr. Christian Haass
- Bibliography of secondary sources on Alois Alzheimer and Alzheimer's disease, selected from peer-reviewed journals.
- Graeber Manuel B. "Alois Alzheimer (1864–1915)". International Brain Research Organization
- "The Story of Auguste Deter"[1]
- ^ "The Story of Auguste Deter | ASC Blog". www.asccare.com. 11 September 2014. Retrieved 16 October 2022.