Development of the diagnostic concept of manic-depressive psychosis in Emil Kraepelin's classification
DEVELOPMENT OF THE DIAGNOSTIC CONCEPT OF MANIC-DEPRESSIVE PSYCHOSIS IN EMIL KRAEPELIN’S CLASSIFICATIONS
Thomas A. Ban
In 44 years, from 1883 to 1927, Emil Kraepelin’s 400 pages Compendium of Psychiatry, grew into a 1425 pages Textbook of Psychiatry and his syndromic classifications in the first three editions (1883, 1886 and 1889) were replaced by his disease oriented classification. The shift from syndromic to disease oriented classification was completed by 1899 with the introduction of the diagnostic concept of manic-depressive psychosis (insanity), in the sixth edition (Pichot 1983).
Tracking the development that lead to the diagnostic concept of manic-depressive psychosis (MDP), an episodic disease with full remission between episodes, one finds the following chain of events (Menninger, Mayman and Pruyser 1968):
1st edition, 1883: Depression (simple melancholia and melancholia with delirium); excitement (melancholia active and mania); and periodic psychoses (periodic mania, periodic melancholia and circular states).
2nd edition, 1886: Melancholia (activa, simplex, attonita); mania; periodical insanity (mania, melancholiay) and circular insanity.
3rd edition, 1889: Mania; melancholia; periodical mental disease (delirious form, manic form, circular form and depressive form).
4th edition, 1893: Mania; melancholia; periodical mental disease (delirious form, manic form, circular form and depressive form).
5th edition, 1896: Involutional melancholia; periodic psychosis (mania, circular psychosis and depression).
6th edition, 1899: Involutional melancholia; manic-depressive psychosis (manic states, depressive sates and mixed states).
7th edition, 1903-4: Involutional melancholia; manic - depressive psychosis.
8th edition, 1909 -15: Manic-depressive psychosis.
9th edition, 1927: Manic-depressive psychosis.
Kraepelin’s all-embracing diagnosic concept of “manic-depressive psychosis” was first fully presented, in 1913, in the third volume of the 8th edition of his textbook, in which on the basis of his own comprehensive observations with consideration of earlier German and French research, he united in this diagnosis “the entire realm of periodic and circular insanity, uncomplicated mania, the majority of illness entities taken for ‘melancholia’, and a non-negligible quantity of ‘amentia cases’, as well as “certain mild, partly periodic, partly chronic morbid mood modifications, which, on the one hand are to be considered as preliminary stages of more severe disorders, on the other as blending into the realm of individual nature” (Berner, Gabriel, Katschnig, Kieffer, Koehler, Lenz and Simhandl 1983).
References
Berner P, Gabriel E, Katschnig H, Kieffer W, Koehler K, Lenz G, Simhandl CH. Diagnostic Criteria for Schizophrenia and Affective Psychoses. World Psyhiatric Association; 1983.
Kraepelin E: Compendium der Psychiatrie. Leipzig: Barth; 1883.
Kraepelin E: Compendium der Psychiatrie. 2 Aufl. Leipzig: Barth; 1886.
Kraepelin E: Compendium der Psychiatrie. Leipzig: Barth; 1889.
Kraepelin E. Psychiatrie. Ein Lehrbuch für Studierende und Ärzte. 4 Aufl. Leipzig: Barth; 1893.
Kraepelin E. Psychiatrie. Ein Lehrbuch für Studierende und Ärzte. 5 Aufl. Leipzig: Barth; 1896.
Kraepelin E. Psychiatrie. Ein Lehrbuch für Studierende und Ärzte. 6 Aufl. Leipzig: Barth; 1899.
Kraepelin E. Psychiatrie. Ein Lehrbuch für Studierende und Ärzte. 7 Aufl. Leipzig: Barth; 1903-1904.
Kraepelin E. Psychiatrie. Ein Lehrbuch fuer Studierende und Ärzte. 8 Aufl. Leipzig: Barth; 1908-1915.
Kraepelin E. Psychiatrie. Ein Lehrbuch fuer Studierende und Ärzte. 9 Aufl. Leipzig: Barth; 1927.
Menninger K, Mayman M, Pruyser P. The Vitla Balance. New York: Viking Press; 1969.
Pichot P. A Century of Psychiatry. Paris: Roger Dacosta; 1983.
Thomas A. Ban
November 5, 2015