Alois Alzheimer on presenile dementia

The work of Alois Alzheimer on presenile dementia is a landmark in the history of psychiatry not fully appreciated by contemporary psychiatrists. In this paper, the history of his landmark work is reviewed in the context of the growing importance of psychiatric involvement in Alzheimer's disease. Annotated excerpts from Alzheimer's second paper (1911), never before translated into English, are presented. The historical significance of Alzheimer's findings vis-a-vis Kraepelinian psychiatry and the relationship of his investigations to modern psychiatric research in primary degenerative dementia of the Alzheimer type are discussed.