Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T04:11:00.440Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

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

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Bob Baldwin  and
Hans Förstl
Bob Baldwin*
Affiliation:
York House, Manchester Royal Infirmary, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9BX
Hans Förstl
Affiliation:
Psychiatrische Klinik, Zentralinstitut fur Seelische, Gesundheit, 6800 Mannheim, 1-J5, Postfach 122120, Germany
*
∗Correspondence
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

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.”

Type
Point of View
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 163 , Issue 1 , July 1993 , pp. 100 - 104
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alzheimer, A. (1911) Über eigcnartige Krankheitsfälle des spätercn Alters. Zeitschrift für die Gesamte Neurologie und Psychiatrie, 4, 356–385.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
American Psychiatric Association (1987) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (3rd edn, revised) (DSM-III-R). Washington, DC: APA.Google Scholar
Benson, D. F., Davis, J. R. & Synder, B. D. (1988) Posterior cortical atrophy. Archives of Neurology, 45, 789–793.Google Scholar
Bennett, D. A., Wilson, R. A., Gilley, D. W., et al (1990) Clinical diagnosis of Binswanger's disease. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, 53, 961–965.Google Scholar
Brun, A. (1987) Frontal lobe degeneration of non-Alzheimer type. I Neuropathology. Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics, 6, 193–208.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Clark, A. W., Manz, H. J., White, C. L, et al (1986) Cortical degeneration with swollen chromatolytic neurons: its relationship to Pick's disease. Journal of Neuropathology and Experimental Neurology, 45, 268–284.Google Scholar
Constantinidis, J. (1987) Syndrome familial: association de maladie de Pick et sclerose laterale amyotrophiqe. L'Encephale, 13, 285–293.Google Scholar
Constantinidis, J., Richard, J. & Tissot, R. (1974) Pick's disease: histological and clinical correlations. European Neurology, 11, 208–217.Google Scholar
De Renzi, E. (1986) Slowly progressive visual agnosia or apraxia without dementia. Cortex, 22, 171–180.Google Scholar
Devanand, D. P., Miller, L., Richards, M., et al (1992) The Columbia Scale for psychopathology in Alzheimer's disease. Archives of Neurology, 49, 371–376.Google Scholar
Fairburn, C. G. & Hope, R. A. (1988) Changes in behaviour in dementia: a neglected research area. British Journal of Psychiatry, 152, 406–407.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ferraro, A. & Jervis, G. A. (1936) Pick's disease: clinicopathological study with report of two cases. Archives Neurology and Psychiatry, 36, 739–767.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Förstl, H. & Levy, R. (1991) Classic text no. 5. A. Alzheimer: on certain peculiar diseases of old age. History of Psychiatry, 2, 71–101.Google Scholar
Gans, A. (1922) Betrachtungen über Art und Ausbreitung des krankhaften Prozesses in einem Fall von Pickscher Atrophie des Stirnhims. Zeitschrift für die Gesamte Neurologie und Psychiatrie, 80, 10–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Graff-Radford, N. R., Damasio, A. R., Hyman, B. T., et al (1990) Progressive aphasia in a patient with Pick's disease. Neurology, 40, 620–626.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gustafson, L. (1987) Frontal lobe degeneration of non-Alzheimer type 11. Clinical picture and differential diagnosis. Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics, 6, 209–223.Google Scholar
Hodges, J. R., Patterson, K., Oxbury, S., et al (1992) Semantic dementia: progressive fluent aphasia with temporal lobe atrophy. Brain, 115, 1786–1806.Google Scholar
Jagust, W. J., Reed, B. R., Seab, P. J., et al (1989) Clinical-physiological correlates of Alzheimer's disease and frontal lobe dementia. American Journal of Physiological Imaging, 4, 89–96.Google Scholar
Kahn, E. & Thompson, L. J. (1933) Concerning Pick's disease. American Journal of Psychiatry, 90, 937–946.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kim, R. C., Collins, G. H., Parisi, J. E., et al (1981) Familial dementia of adult onset with pathological findings of a ‘nonspecific’ nature. Brain, 104, 61–78.Google Scholar
Kirshner, H. S., Webb, W. G., Kelly, M. P., et al (1984) Language disturbance: an initial symptom of cortical degeneration and dementia. Archives of Neurology, 41, 491–496.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kirshner, H. S., Tanridag, O., Thurman, L., et al (1987) Progressive aphasia without dementia: two cases with focal spongiform degeneration. Annals of Neurology, 22, 527–532.Google Scholar
Knopman, D. S., Mastri, A. R., Frey, W. H., et al (1990) Dementia lacking distinct histologic features: a common cause of non-Alzheimer degenerative dementia. Neurology, 40, 251–256.Google Scholar
Lindgren, A. K. H. (1952) The patho-anatomical classification of Morbus Alzheimer and Morbus Pick. Acta Psychiatrica et Neurologica Scandinavica (suppl. 81), 118–152.Google Scholar
Malamud, N. & Boyd, D. A. (1940) Pick's disease with atrophy of the temporal lobes: a clinicopathological study. Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry, 43, 210–222.Google Scholar
McKeith, I. G., Perry, R. H., Fairburn, A. F., et al (1992) Operational criteria for senile dementia of Lewy body type (SDLT). Psychological Medicine, 22, 911–922.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mehler, M. F., Horoupian, D. S., Davies, P., et al (1987) Reduced somatostatin-like immunoreactivity in cerebral cortex in nonfamilial dysphasic dementia. Neurology, 37, 1448–1453.Google Scholar
Mesulam, M-M. (1982) Slowly progressive aphasia without generalised dementia. Annals of Neurology, 11, 592–598.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mesulam, M-M. (1987) Primary progressive aphasia: differentiation from Alzheimer's disease. Annals of Neurology, 22, 533–534.Google Scholar
Miller, B. L., Cummings, J. L., Villanueva-Meyer, J., et al (1991) Frontal lobe degeneration: clinical, neuropsychological and SPECT characteristictics. Neurology, 41, 1374–1382.Google Scholar
Morris, J. C., Cole, M., Banker, B. Q., et al (1984) Hereditary dysphasic dementia and the Pick - Alzheimer spectrum. Annals of Neurology, 16, 455–466.Google Scholar
Munoz-Garcia, D. & Ludwin, S. K. (1984) Classic and generalised variants of Pick's disease: a clinicopathological, ultrastructural and immunocytochemical comparative study. Annals of Neurology, 16, 467–480.Google Scholar
Neary, D. (1990) Non-Alzheimer's disease forms of cerebral atrophy. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, 53, 929–931.Google Scholar
Neary, D., Snowden, J. S., Northen, B., et al (1988) Dementia of frontal-lobe type. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, 51, 353–361.Google Scholar
Neary, D., Snowden, J. S., Mann, D. M. A., et al (1990) Frontal lobe dementia and motor neuron disease. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, 53, 23–32.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Neumann, M. A. (1949) Pick's disease. Journal of Neuropathology and Experimental Neurology, 8, 255–282.Google Scholar
Neumann, M. A. & Cohn, R. (1967) Progressive subcortical gliosis, a rare form of presenile dementia. Brain, 90, 405–418.Google Scholar
Nichols, I. C. & Weigner, W. C. (1934) Pick's disease: a review of the literature and presentation of a case. Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry, 32, 241–244.Google Scholar
Onari, K. & Spatz, H. (1926) Anatomische Beiträge zur Lehre von Pickscnen umschriebenen Grosshirarinden-Atrophie (“Picksche Krankheit”). Zeitschrift fur die Gesamte Neurology und Psychiatric, 101, 470–511.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pick, A. (1892) Ueber die Beziehungen der senilen Hirnatrophie zur Aphasie. Pragur Medicinische Wochenschrift, 17, 165–167.Google Scholar
Pick, A. (1901) Senile Hirnatrophie als Grundlage von Herderscheinungen. Wiener Klinische Wochenschrift, 14, 403–404.Google Scholar
Pick, A. (1904) Zur Symptomatologie der linksseitigen Schlafenlappenatrophie. Monatsschrift fur Psychiatric und Neurologie, 16, 378–388.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pick, A. (1906) Uber einen weiteren Symptomenkomplex im Rahmen der Dementia senilis, bedingt durch umschriebene, starkere Hiraatrophie (gemischte Apraxie). Monatsschrift fur Psychiatric und Neurologie, 19, 97–108.Google Scholar
Poeck, K. & Luzzatti, C. (1988) Slowly progressive aphasia in three patients: the problem of accompanying neuropsychological deficit. Brain, 111, 151–168.Google Scholar
Sam, M., Gutmann, L., Schochet, S. S., et al (1991) Pick's disease: a case resembling amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Neurology, 41, 1831–1833.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sandson, T. A., Daffner, K. R., Carvalho, P. A., et al (1991) Frontal lobe dysfunction following infarction of the left-sided medial thalamus. Archives of Neurology, 48, 1300–1303.Google Scholar
Snowden, J. S., Neary, D., Mann, D. M. A., et al (1992) Progressive language disorder due to lobar atrophy. Annals of Neurology, 31, 174–183.Google Scholar
Strub, R. L. (1989) Frontal lobe syndrome in a patient with bilateral globus pallidus lesions. Archives of Neurology, 46, 1024–1027.Google Scholar
Testa, H. J., Snowden, J. S., Neary, D., et al (1988) The use of [99mTc]-HM-PAO in the diagnosis of primary degenerative dementia. Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism, 8, S123–S126.Google Scholar
Verity, M. A. & Wechsler, A. F. (1987) Progressive subcortical gliosis of Neumann: a clinicopathological study of two cases with review. Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics, 6, 245–261.Google Scholar
Wechsler, A. F. (1977) Presenile dementia presenting as aphasia. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, 40, 303–305.Google Scholar
Wechsler, A. F., Verity, M. A., Rosenschein, S., et al (1982) Pick's disease: a clinical, computed tomographic, and histologic study with Golgi impregnation observations. Archives of Neurology, 39, 287–290.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.