Von Economo Encephalitis

Constantin Alexander von Economo, a psychiatrist and neurologist, reported in 1917 about encephalitis lethargica in front of the Vienna Psychiatric Society. Sporadic cases of this brain and brainstem encephalitis were reported in 1916 and 1917, and similar cases were reported around the world between 1919 and 1920. His primary description of the illness that raged in an epidemic in Europe and North America between 1916 and 1927 was named von Economo encephalitis. A few weeks before, Jean-Rene Cruchet presented his observations to the Paris Medical Society after treating military patients with neuropsychiatric disorders showing unusual neurological signs. Encephalitis lethargica or von Economo encephalitis is also known as sleeping sickness. Originally it was classified into three clinical forms: somnolent-ophthalmoplegic, hyperkinetic, and amyostatic-akinetic. Currently, postencephalitic parkinsonism has a very close relationship with encephalitis lethargica, also called von Economo encephalitis. Von Economo was nominated for the 1926, 1930, and 1932 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Encephalitis lethargica came to light after the book “Awakening” written by an English neurologist, Oliver Sacks. A movie based on the book was released in 1990.