Zum 150. Geburtstag von Paul Julius Möbius (1853–1907)

Fortschr Neurol Psychiatr

2023

ZusammenfassungSeit einigen Jahren steigt die Inzidenz der Syphilis und neuroluetischer Krankheitsbilder. Damit gewinnen auch Tabes dorsalis und progressive Paralyse wieder an Relevanz in der Neurologie. Um das Verständnis der Ätiologie dieser Krankheitsbilder wurde in den letzten beiden Jahrzehnten des 19. Jahrhunderts gerade auch in der deutschen Nervenheilkunde eine hitzige Debatte geführt, der sogenannte ‚Tabes-Syphilis-Streit‘. Wilhelm Erb hatte 1879 in einem viel beachteten Vortrag die deutsche Nervenärzteschaft dazu aufgerufen, endlich zielstrebig die Klärung der Ursache der Tabes dorsalis anzugehen. Er selbst postulierte v. a. auf Grund von Krankheitsstatistiken eine vorherige syphilitische Infektion als hauptsächliches Moment. Die Lösung dieser Frage drängte, denn der Anteil der Patienten in den psychiatrischen Anstalten, die an progressiver Paralyse litten, bei der enge Parallelen zur Tabes gesehen wurden, nahm rapide zu. Die Berliner Nervenärzte Carl Westphal, Ernst Julius Remak, Martin Bernhardt und Ernst Victor von Leyden empfanden Erbs These als Fehdehandschuh. Sie sahen die Ursachen von Tabes und progressiver Paralyse in sozialen Verelendungsprozessen wie feucht-kalten Wohnverhältnissen, in körperlich einseitigen Arbeitsüberlastungen oder in den Strapazen von Soldaten im Heer. Als Anlass einer traumatischen Tabes nahmen sie Erschütterungen oder Prellungen an. Der Leipziger Nervenarzt Paul Julius Möbius sprach als Erster zwischen 1890 und 1897 aus, dass die einzige Ursache von Tabes und progressiver Paralyse eine vorherige Syphilis sei. Konsequent schloss er alle anderen ätiologischen Theorien aus. Vor allem die bakteriologische und mikrobiologische Forschung der Folgejahre gab Möbius recht. Somit konnten 40 Jahre nach Erbs Vortrag neben diagnostischen auch therapeutische Verfahren gezielt entwickelt und angewendet werden.

Section: Martin Bernhardtunclassified

Der ‚Tabes-Syphilis-Streit‘ Ein Disput über die Ursache der Tabes dorsalis und der progressiven Paralyse am Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts

Fortschr Neurol Psychiatr

2023

“…This research has established that Möbius had a major impact on the ideographic history of the neurosciences. 2,3 In particular, he had a direct and lasting influence on the classification of mental illnesses established by his colleague and friend Emil Kraepelin (1856–1926), which became widely acknowledged and adopted by doctors around the world in around 1900. He did so by proposing a strictly etiological differentiation of nervous and mental illnesses into endogenous and exogenous ones.…”

Section: Work By Paul Julius Möbius That Mark His Importance As a Nementioning

confidence: 99%

Goethe: A bipolar personality? Periodicity of affective states in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe as reflected by Paul Julius Möbius

Schönknecht

2018

J Med Biogr

This paper aims to investigate the character and etiological basis of German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's mental disorder. From 1898, German neuropsychiatrist Paul Julius Möbius developed the hypothesis that Goethe's work provided several hints for the notion that the German poet suffered from a distinct bipolar disorder. The paper investigates Möbius's psychopathographic study on Goethe and his hypothesis of a mood periodicity in Goethe against the mirror of modern concepts. Möbius came to the conclusion that Goethe's illness was bipolar in character and became visible at intervals of seven years and lasted for about two years. The majority of Möbius's contemporary psychiatric colleagues (Emil Kraepelin, Max Isserlin, Ernst Kretschmer, Josef Breuer) supported this view which has still not been convincingly challenged. In present-day terms, Möbius's hypothesis can be best mirrored as a subclinical foundation of mood disorder. Furthermore, with his extensive study, Möbius disproved the common notion that Goethe had suffered from an illness as the result of a syphilitic infection.

“…In 1903, the Leipzig-based neuropsychiatrist Paul Julius Möbius (1853–1907) [ 7 , 8 , 9 ] published a 100-page treatise detailing the effects of castration on the genitals, breasts, bones, body fat, skin, muscles, glands, the inner organs, larynx, skull, the brain and “mental activities”. He also considered aspects of the cultural history of castration [ 10 ].…”

Section: The Development Of Endocrine Concepts Of Psychiatric Disomentioning

confidence: 99%

The Historical Development of Immunoendocrine Concepts of Psychiatric Disorders and Their Therapy

Kirkby

Himmerich

2015

IJMS

Relationships between the central nervous, immune and endocrine systems are a focus of psychiatric research, particularly in depression and schizophrenia. The field has long antecedents. Observed phenomena attributable to these relationships date back to the Neolithic era. Immunoendocrine theories in the broadest sense are recorded in antiquity. In the 19th century, Kraepelin and Wagner-Jauregg reported pioneering clinical observations in psychiatric patients. Von Basedow, Addison and Cushing described psychiatric symptoms in patients suffering from endocrine diseases. The 20th century opened with the identification of hormones, the first, adrenaline, chemically isolated independently by Aldrich und Takamine in 1901. Berson and Yalow developed the radioimmunoassay (RIA) technique in 1959 making it possible to measure levels of hormones and cytokines. These developments have enabled great strides in psychoimmunoendocrinology. Contemporary research is investigating diagnostic and therapeutic applications of these concepts, for example by identifying biomarkers within the endocrine and immune systems and by synthesizing and testing drugs that modulate these systems and show antidepressant or antipsychotic properties.