Georges Gilles de la Tourette
Georges Gilles de la Tourette | |
---|---|
Born | Georges Albert Édouard Brutus Gilles de la Tourette 30 October 1857 Saint-Gervais-les-Trois-Clochers, Vienne, France |
Died | 22 May 1904 | (aged 46)
Known for | Namesake of Tourette syndrome |
Georges Albert Édouard Brutus Gilles de la Tourette (French:
Early life
Gilles de la Tourette was born the oldest of four children on 30 October 1857[1] in the small town of Saint-Gervais-les-Trois-Clochers in the district of Châtellerault, near the city of Loudun.[2][3]
During 1873, Gilles de la Tourette began medical studies at Poitiers at the age of sixteen.[1] In 1881, he relocated to Paris, where he continued his studies at the Laennec Hospital.[1]
Career
Gilles de la Tourette began his internship in 1884, working "at a superhuman pace, publishing, teaching and practicing clinical medicine".
In 1884, Charcot asked Gilles de la Tourette to work on motor disorders; latah, myriachit, and the Jumping Frenchmen of Maine had recently been described, and Gilles de la Tourette believed the conditions were related and separate from chorea.[1] He described the symptoms of Tourette syndrome in one patient and collected previous observations of similar cases, and in 1885, he published a further nine cases using the name maladie des tics for the disorder.[6] Charcot renamed the syndrome "Gilles de la Tourette's illness" in his honor,[2] although the work was not well received at Salpêtrière.[1]
Gilles de la Tourette published an article on hysteria in the
Personal life and decline
Gilles de la Tourette married his cousin Marie Detrois (1867–1922) on 2 August 1887 in Loudon. Paul Brouardel and Charcot were witnesses. They had four children, three of whom lived to adulthood.[8]
In 1893, a former female patient, who was later revealed to have psychosis, shot Gilles de la Tourette in the neck,[1][9][a] claiming one of his colleagues had hypnotized her against her will.[1] His mentor, Charcot, had died recently, and his young son had also died recently.[1] Although he recovered from the shooting and continued to work and organize lectures, after these events, Gilles de la Tourette began to display symptoms of severe depression.[1] After 1893, his mental health noticeably declined.[2]
In 1901, Charcot's son, Jean-Baptiste, convinced Gilles de la Tourette to travel to Switzerland on a ruse, and had him committed to a psychiatric hospital, where Gilles de la Tourette was diagnosed with tertiary syphilis.[10] His condition worsened and he was forced to resign.[2] His wife and colleagues were not forthcoming about the causes of his internment.[11] He died on 22 May 1904[1][2][11] with advanced dementia[2] at the Lausanne Psychiatric Hospital in Cery from what was labeled a status seizure, and that his wife described as apoplexy.[11] Lees (2019) states that "Gilles de la Tourette died of general paralysis of the insane (neurosyphilis)".[7]
Writings
Gilles de la Tourette published sixteen papers on hysteria, including:[1]
- Les actualités médicales, les états neurasthéniques (Paris 1898)
- Leçons de clinique thérapeutique sur les maladies du système nerveux (Paris 1898)
- L'hypnotisme et les états analogues au point de vue médico-légal (Paris, 1887; 2nd. edition Paris 1889)
- Les actualités médicales. Formes cliniques et traitement des myélites syphilitiques' convulsifs (La semaine médicale 1899)
- Traité clinique et thérapeutique de l'hystérie d'après l'enseignement de la Salpêtrière (Paris 1891)
Notes
References
- ^ PMID 19913650.
- ^ PMID 19099145.
- ^ Walusinski (2019), pp. 3–4.
- ^ Walusinski (2019), pp. xvii–xviii, 23.
- ^ Walusinski (2019), pp. xi, 398. "Interne: House physician or house officer. The internes lived at the hospital and had diagnostic and therapeutic responsibilities. Chef de Clinique: Senior house officer or resident. In 1889, when Gilles de la Tourette was chef de clinique under Charcot ... "
- S2CID 145727765.
- ^ .
- ^ Walusinski (2019), pp. 13–16.
- ^ a b Walusinski (2019), p. 72.
- ^ PMID 19602893.
- ^ a b c Walusinski (2019), pp. 113–120.
Books
- Walusinski O (2019). Georges Gilles de la Tourette: Beyond the Eponym, a Biography. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-063603-6