Sergei Korsakoff was the first of great Russian neuropsychiatrists. He studied medicine at the University of Moscow, graduated in 1875 and subsequently became physician to "Preobrazhenski" (Russian: Преображенский) mental hospital. From 1876 to 1879 he gained postgraduate experience in the clinic for nervous diseases under Aleksei Kozhevnikov. His thesis"Alcoholic Paralysis" won him the medical doctorate in 1887. In 1892 he was appointed professor extraordinarius at a new university psychiatric clinic. During this time he visited Vienna where he was a pupil of Theodor Meynert. He was ordinarius of neurology and psychiatry from 1899 until his death the next year.
Korsakoff was one of the greatest neuropsychiatrists of the 19th century and published numerous works in neuropathology, psychiatry, and forensic medicine. Apart from his studies on alcoholicpsychosis, he introduced the concept of paranoia and wrote an excellent textbook on psychiatry. Korsakoff studied the effects of alcoholism on the nervous system and drew attention to several cases of alcoholic polyneuropathy with distinctive mental symptoms. An able organiser, he was instrumental in founding the Moscow Society of Neuropathologists and Psychiatrists. The "Zhurnal nevropatologii i psikhiatrii imenia Korsakov" (Russian: Журнал невропатологии и психиатрии имени Корсакова, Korsakoff's Journal of Neuropathology and Psychiatry) was named after him.
Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome or Polioencephalitis hemorrhagica superior associated with Korsakoff's psychosis: A condition characterized by nystagmus, ocular and conjugate gaze palsies, ataxia and psychosis due to nutritional deficiency, more specifically of thiamine and observed mainly, though not exclusively, in alcoholics.
Bibliography
Barry G. Firkin and J.A. Whitworth: Dictionary of Medical Eponyms. Parthenon Publishing Group. New edition 2002
