‘Pick's Disease’–101 Years on Still There, But in Need of Reform

Abstract

On 23 April 1892, Arnold Pick reported the case of AH, who died aged 71 years following a two-year history of progressive ‘feeble-mindedness', outbursts of rage, fits and, in the later stages, severe aphasia (Pick, 1892). The post-mortem showed cerebral atrophy, particularly affecting the left temporal lobe. Pick went on to describe further cases of circumscribed atrophy affecting the temporal lobe (Pick, 1901, 1904), and parietal and frontal lobes (Pick, 1906). Although he believed the focal pathology represented a local emphasis of ‘senile cortical atrophy’, he wanted to show that a localised form of cerebral atrophy could nevertheless cause specific symptoms:“… thereby bringing neuropathology and psychiatry into closer union … so that the latter may be brought nearer to medical understanding.”