Alzheimer’s disease affects millions of people worldwide, and is considered the worst form of dementia. While many people know what this disease can do to the loved ones in their lives, not many people know it’s history.

The First Known Case

Frau Auguste D. was only 51 when her husband brought her to the doctor for her symptoms on a chilly November evening in 1901. He had noticed that her behavior was increasingly suspicious, and he was worried about his beloved. She could no longer do things that were part of her daily ritual, things so engrained in her life like cooking his meals. She would not only forget recipes, but could not even remember what the pots and other cooking utensils in the kitchen were supposed to be used for.

Her moods were unstable – she would fly into an alarming rage when she could not remember where she placed things, and many times they would be found in unusual places, such as a hairbrush in the oven or her husband’s pipe in the laundry.

Going places on her own became dangerous, as she could no longer find her way home, even from stores she had been visiting for years. Nights brought even more agitation, and when she could finally fall asleep, would awaken throughout the night and wander around confused by her surroundings. If all of this wasn’t enough to terrify her husband, she could not remember where the bathroom was, or even how to communicate what her needs were clearly any longer.

A Confused Doctor

Frau Auguste D.’s husband brought her to a young German neurologist, Dr. Alois Alzheimer, when he could not take anymore, and admitted her into an asylum. Dr. Alzheimer was perplexed in hearing the symptoms as described, after all, he had seen this in patients 30 years her senior, but never in one so young. He knew this woman was in serious trouble, though, and admitted her then and there.

Over the next three and a half years, the poor woman’s condition deteriorated rapidly. Over this time, she got to the point she could no longer recognize not only her doctor, but her husband and even her own daughter. She would be found crying for help up and down the halls. In the end, she was completely gone from her previous reality, incontinent, bedridden, and completely helpless.

A New Name for Textbooks

After her death, Dr. Alzheimer received permission from her family to perform an autopsy, and her brain was studied. With a newly developed high resolution microscope, the doctor found something he had seen previously in brain tissue, but only in the very elderly. These ‘plaques’ that had formed between the nerve tissues were known as ‘senile plaques’. Even more alarming than this was the fact that many neurons were simply missing. He realized this was a new form of dementia, and he announced his discovery in 1906. This condition became known as “pre-senile dementia of the Alzheimer’s type”.