Editing Alois Alzheimer (section)

===Auguste Deter===
In 1901, Alzheimer observed a patient at the Frankfurt asylum named [[Auguste Deter]]. The 51-year-old patient had strange behavioral symptoms, including a loss of short-term memory; she became his obsession over the coming years. Auguste Deter was a victim of the politics of the time in the psychiatric community;<ref name=":1"/> the Frankfurt asylum was too expensive for her husband. Herr Deter made several requests to have his wife moved to a less expensive facility, but Alzheimer intervened in these requests. Auguste D., as she was known, remained at the Frankfurt asylum, where Alzheimer had made a deal to receive her records and brain upon her death, paying for the remainder of her stay in return.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Yang |first1=Hyun Duk |display-authors=etal |title=History of Alzheimer's Disease |journal=Dementia and Neurocognitive Disorders |date=December 2016 |volume=15 |issue=4 |pages=115–121 |doi=10.12779/dnd.2016.15.4.115 |pmid=30906352 |pmc=6428020 |url=}}</ref>

On 8 April 1906, Auguste Deter died, and Alzheimer had her medical records and brain brought to Munich where he was working in Kraepelin's laboratory. With two Italian physicians, he used the newly developed [[Bielschowsky stain]] to identify [[amyloid]] plaques and [[neurofibrillary tangles]]. These brain anomalies became identifiers of what is now known as [[Alzheimer's disease]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.biography.com/people/alois-alzheimer-21216461|title=Alois Alzheimer|date=2 April 2014|website=Biography.com|access-date=19 February 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180323115550/https://www.biography.com/people/alois-alzheimer-21216461|archive-date=23 March 2018|url-status=dead}}</ref>

[[File:-46.1- alois alzheimer 1906.jpg|thumb|First description of Alzheimer's dementia (1906)]]
On 3{{nbsp}}November 1906, Alzheimer discussed his findings on the brain pathology and symptoms of presenile dementia publicly, at the [[Tübingen]] meeting of the Southwest German Psychiatrists.<ref name=":0"/> The attendees at this lecture seemed uninterested in what he had to say. The lecturer that followed Alzheimer was to speak on the topic of "compulsive masturbation", which the audience of 88 individuals was so eagerly awaiting that they sent Alzheimer away without any questions or comments on his discovery of the pathology of a peculiar case of early-onset dementia.<ref name=":0"/><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Benjamin|first1=Sheldon|last2=MacGillivray|first2=Lindsey|last3=Schildkrout|first3=Barbara|last4=Cohen-Oram|first4=Alexis|last5=Lauterbach|first5=Margo D.|last6=Levin|first6=Leonard L.|date=2018-08-24|title=Six Landmark Case Reports Essential for Neuropsychiatric Literacy|journal=The Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences|volume=30|issue=4|pages=279–290|doi=10.1176/appi.neuropsych.18020027|pmid=30141725|issn=0895-0172|doi-access=free}}</ref>

Following his presentation, Alzheimer published a short paper summarizing his presentation; in 1907 he wrote a longer paper detailing the disease and his findings.<ref name=":0"/> It became known as Alzheimer's disease in 1910, when Kraepelin named it so in the chapter on "Presenile and Senile Dementia" in the 8th edition of his ''Handbook of Psychiatry''. By 1911, his description of the disease was being used by European physicians to diagnose patients in the US.<ref name="AlzBook"/>

Additional case descriptions by Alzheimer and his colleagues continued in the following years, including older patients than the early-onset dementia of Auguste Deter.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Alzheimer |first=A. |date=1911-12-01 |title=über eigenartige Krankheitsfälle des späteren Alters |url=https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF02866241 |journal=Zeitschrift für die gesamte Neurologie und Psychiatrie |language=de |volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=356–385 |doi=10.1007/BF02866241 |issn=0303-4194}}</ref> Alzheimer eventually conceived "his" disease as mainly characterized clinically by a severe dementia with instrumental symptoms, and pathologically by extended [[Neurofibrillary tangle|neurofibrillary tangles]].<ref name=":5">{{Cite journal |last1=Villain |first1=Nicolas |last2=Michalon |first2=Robin |date=November 2024 |title=What is Alzheimer's disease? An analysis of nosological perspectives from the 20th and 21st centuries |journal=European Journal of Neurology |language=en |volume=31 |issue=11 |pages=e16302 |doi=10.1111/ene.16302 |issn=1351-5101 |pmc=11464395 |pmid=38618742}}</ref> He debated fiercely with [[Oskar Fischer]], a German-speaking pathologist from Prague, who instead emphasized on the importance of [[Amyloid plaques|neuritic plaques]] and of presbyophrenia<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Berrios |first=G. E. |date=May 1986 |title=Presbyophrenia: the rise and fall of a concept |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/psychological-medicine/article/abs/presbyophrenia-the-rise-and-fall-of-a-concept/0C1B4AF45DB032E766A24334F92E7E34 |journal=Psychological Medicine |language=en |volume=16 |issue=2 |pages=267–275 |doi=10.1017/S0033291700009089 |pmid=3726003 |issn=1469-8978}}</ref> as the phenotype.<ref name=":5" /> Finally, it must be highlighted that Fischer–Alzheimer's nosological considerations had less impact than [[Emil Kraepelin|Kraepelin]]'s 1910 Textbook of Psychiatry, which distinguished between "Alzheimer's disease" and senile dementia, including presbyophrenia. This textbook had a strong influence on early 20th century research on senile dementia and played a significant role in the classification of dementia in the following decades.<ref name=":5" />