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The First Alzheimer's Patient

In 1901, Dr Alois Alzheimer began treating a 51-year-old woman with dementia. Her name was Auguste Deter. The illness he identified would become known as Alzheimer's disease.

In 1901, the German psychiatrist Dr Alois Alzheimer treated a 51-year-old woman, Auguste Deter, who had developed a type of dementia. The illness he documented became known as Alzheimer鈥檚 disease. We speak to Professor Konrad Maurer, who discovered Dr Alzheimer's original case file on Auguste Deter, which had been lost for almost a century.
Photo: Auguste Deter photographed in the psychiatric hospital in Frankfurt where Dr Alzheimer worked, c.1901

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9 minutes

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Wed 13 Jan 2016 08:50GMT

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  • Wed 13 Jan 2016 08:50GMT

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