Korsakov's psychosis precipitated by convulsive seizures in chronic alcoholics

Abstract

Dementia, of several types, has long been known as one of the possible fates of the alcoholic. Since Gigon and Odermatt (1925) and Shattuck (1928) called attention to the likeness between alcoholic polyneuritis and that found in beriberi evidence has accumulated of the part played by lack of B vitamins. It is now accepted that Wernicke's encephalopathy is identical with cerebral beriberi (de Wardener and Lennox, 1947) and results primarily from a deficiency of thiamine. The same brain lesions are found in Wernicke's encephalopathy and Korsakov's psychosis, allowing for the length of the illness (e.g., Victoret al., 1952; Malamud and Skillicorn, 1956) and Victor and Adams (1961) consider that Korsakov's psychosis in alcoholics is the psychic manifestation of Wernicke's encephalopathy.