title: [Esquirol and dementia].
abstract: Jean Etienne Dominique Esquirol (1772-1840), after Pinel (1745-1826), stated precisely the symptoms of dementia according to the new medical definition of the word: a disease including all the states of intellectual weakness for various reasons. For example Esquirol clearly distinguished dementia from mania--that is to say our present psychoses--, and also from mental deficiency. In the same time Esquirol became more and more conscious, from 1814 (cf. his contributions to the Dictionnaire des sciences médicales, in 58 volumes, dir. Panckoucke) and 1838 (his famous work Des maladies mentales), of the very nature of senile insanity compared with other kinds of dementia.
authors.forename: Philippe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Albou
mesh_terms: D001714:Bipolar Disorder / Q000266:history; D003704:Dementia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000266:history*; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005602:France; D049671:History, 18th Century; D049672:History, 19th Century; D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000266:history; D011570:Psychiatry / Q000266:history*; D013782:Textbooks as Topic / Q000266:history*