Dementia praecox is a term in Latin which Emil Kraepelin invented and contrasted with a mental illness called manic-depressive insanity [1] which is re-described as Bipolar disorder today.[2] For Kraepelin and other psychiatrists, people diagnosed with manic-depressive insanity often had episodes in which they seemed normal, while people with dementia praecox did not. Dementia is a mental illness which mostly occurs in old people.
History
Morel first describes as a term "démence précoce" (the words are French: in English précoce is translated as precocious - meaning early in age: young) in his work of 1852 [3][4]
Morel used his description to describe the condition of a teenager who retreated from society, and started to show symptoms similar to those of dementia.[5]
Kraepelin used dementia praecox for diseases that were characterized by a destruction of the personality, with damage to the mood and the will.[6]
The theory of praecox of dementia could not be proved. In 1911, Eugen Bleuler said that dementia praecox was actually schizophrenia. The word schizophrenia was not used widely before 1925.
References
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