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Who was the first to describe anorexia nervosa: Gull or Lasègue?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

Walter Vandereycken  and
Ron Van Deth
Walter Vandereycken*
Affiliation:
University of Leuven, Belgium, and Leiden, The Netherlands
Ron Van Deth
Affiliation:
University of Leuven, Belgium, and Leiden, The Netherlands
*
1Address for correspondence: Dr W Vandereycken, University Psychiatric Center, Leuvensesteenweg 517. B-3070 Kortenberg, Belgium.
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Synopsis

Leading articles or textbooks on anorexia nervosa generally give credit for its discovery to either the British physician William Withey Gull or to the French neuropsychiatrist Ernest Charles Lasègue. Although the major contributions of both men show a remarkable but independent coincidence around 1873, Gull is mostly given a slight priority because of a rather cryptic mention of an anorexia-like condition in a paper read in 1868. An analysis of the events, however, shows that the British physician from London does not really deserve this honour. For no clear-cut priority for either man can be established.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 19 , Issue 4 , November 1989 , pp. 837 - 845
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1989

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