Talk:General paresis of the insane

Description

What exactly is it? There's no description of symptoms or what exactly its effects on the body. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.12.152.98 (talk) 20:55, 19 May 2008 (UTC)

Would be nice if the article led with notice that this is an archaic medical term for neurosyphilis. No one receives a diagnosis for "general paresis" now, so discussion of prognosis seems kind of silly.

This

This smells like copyrighted material. -- Zoe

No mention of a cause.

As an entry for "paresis" this is article is UTTER CRAP. I do suffer from a paresis. It is a muscle and movement thing and it has nothing to do with syphilis or insanity.

Definitions of Paresis in English:

Slight or incomplete paralysis. www.peteducation.com/dict_alpha_listing.cfm

Weakness, usually in the arms and legs. www.ucsfhealth.org/adult/edu/msGlossary.html

Partial or incomplete paralysis characterized by weakness and reduction in muscular power. www.med.uwo.ca/ecosystemhealth/education/glossary.htm

Greek = relaxation, but has come to mean partial paralysis. www.anatomy.usyd.edu.au/glossary/glossary.cgi

A slight or partial paralysis. Hence, paraparesis means weaknesses in the legs, whereas quadri paresis means weakness in all four limbs, etc. www.unb.ca/current/special/glossary.html

Slight or partial paralysis, often manifesting as weakness in certain muscles. naam-stroke.lle.org/glossary.htm

A slight paralysis; weakness of a limb. www.vet.uga.edu/vpp/gray_book/Handheld/appendix_5.htm

Another word for paralysis. members.tripod.com/~PorphBook/100.html

Partial weakness. www.ohiohealth.com/healthreference/healthtopics/glossary.htm

It is only an impairment of the action of a muscle or a group of muscles (not a total loss of function). www.geocities.com/sapatney/terminology.htm

Weakness in movement. www.msubillings.edu/rbuehl/student_work/vocab2.html

partial weakness, short of paralysis (which is total). www.neurosurvival.ca/reference/simpleglossary.html

a slight or partial paralysis www.cogsci.princeton.edu/cgi-bin/webwn --Daddysmutantkid 12:44, 26 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Please note that paresis refers to partial paralysis or muscle weakness; general paresis refers to insanity caused by late-stage syphilis. Unfortunately, there may also be confusion at times, as the term "paresis" can be used in reference to general paresis. Googling for "general paresis" does back up the general gist of this article.

That being said, this article coud probably use some cleanup, and perhaps a disambig link at the top pointing to paresis, like "for the physical malady causing partial physical paralysis, see paresis." -- Taiichi | (talk) 05:36, 18 May 2005 (UTC)

Moved page

I moved this page, to what is probably a more accurate contemporary title for it. I also reworded the opening to account for this, and added a disambig link to paresis (which is currently a stub - hint, hint  ;-)

I made the paresis stub specifically to deal with some of the concerns listed above; hopefully, someone will add to it. I hope this will alleviate the issue enough that we can remove the "article incorrect!" flag, but I decided to leave it there for now, but maybe we could replace it with a "article needs attention" or "needs cleanup" template... -- Taiichi | (talk) 06:25, 18 May 2005 (UTC)

I removed the tag, which was uninformed. This particular complication of syphilis is best known as "general paresis of the insane", which is where I've moved it (back?) to. The fact that someone might confuse it with other things called paresis is a reason to explain it carefully or diambiguate it, not to move it around. - Nunh-huh 06:32, 18 May 2005 (UTC)

That's fine. The dismabig wasn't the reason for my move, however; I moved it to "general paresis" because, as far as I can suss, that is the current medical term for it - "G. P. of the insane" is probably antiquated. But, if there is a redirect, I'm not going to worry about it. -- Taiichi | (talk) 07:21, 18 May 2005 (UTC)

The whole diagnosis is pretty much antiquated, and it's interesting primarily as a historical curiousity. - Nunh-huh 07:36, 18 May 2005 (UTC)

For what it's worth, this disease was typically known as "general paresis" in the US and "general paralysis" or "general paralysis of the insane" in the UK. Yes, it is a historical term-- the modern one would be neurosyphilis.) clydgate 1/25/2006

Arsphenamine

A book I'm reading now claims that Arsphenamine was once used to treat General Paresis; having not worked on this article, I don't know where to insert it, nor do I know much about the history of Paresis.

Neurosyphilis

A more ambitious editor than myself might want to merge this article and the article on tabes dorsalis into one comprehensive article on Neurosyphilis. Both of these diagnoses are mostly historical as in modern medicine advanced syphilis is rare and is generally treated early before the full blown syndromes have a chance to fully manifest. So usually just a diagnosis of 'neurosyphilis' is given because a more specific diagnosis can't be reached and there is no advantage to being more specific anyway because the treatment is generally penicillin and hope for the best.

Anyway, General paresis and tabes dorsalis are both parenchymal neurosyphilitic disorders, there is menigiovascular neurosyphilis, and there can also be asymptomatic CNS infection.

If someone started a neurosyphilis article and merged the two articles I mentioned into it I could edit the article, but getting it started is beyond my wikipedia abilities. 74.71.245.199 (talk) 06:57, 17 March 2008 (UTC)

At the moment I would prefer to keep the GP article seperate as I intend to do a lot of work on this article over the next few weeks in relation to historical treatments - salvarsan, pyrotherapy & malaria therapy, Julius Wagner-Jauregg's Nobel Prize, effect of general paralysis on inmate numbers in asylums prior to penicillin etc. But that's just my preference. There is a neurosyphilis section on the Syphillis page, which basically covers the four types and some on the historical treatments Shelbypark (talk) 01:56, 16 May 2009 (UTC)

Is this a modern term? It sounds old and "politically incorrect"

The article doesn't say anything about it being dated. Is it? Equinox ◑ 21:54, 6 September 2018 (UTC)