title: Furious Frederich: Nietzsche's neurosyphilis diagnosis and new hypotheses.
abstract: The causes of Friedrich Nietzsche's mental breakdown in early 1889 and of the subsequent slow decay to end-stage dementia along ten years will possibly remain open to debate. The diagnosis of syphilitic dementia paralytica, based only on medical anamnesis and physical examination, was considered indisputable by Otto Binswanger. On the other hand, taking into account recently described diseases, selectively collected evidence lend some support to alternative hypotheses: basal forebrain meningioma, CADASIL, MELAS and frontotemporal dementia.
authors.affiliation: Faculdade de Medicina, Neurologia, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil.
authors.forename: Charles
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: André
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Medicina Social, Universidade Estadual do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil.
authors.forename: André Rangel
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Rios
mesh_terms: D005197:Famous Persons; D005858:Germany; D049672:History, 19th Century; D006801:Humans; D009494:Neurosyphilis / Q000266:history*; D010684:Philosophy / Q000266:history*