Sergei Korsakoff

Sergei Sergeievich Korsakoff (Сергей Сергеевич Корсаков; January 22 1854, Vladimir- May 1 1900, Moscow) was a Russian neuropsychiatrist.

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" mental hospital. From 1876 to 1879 he gained postgraduated 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 neuropsychiatrist of the 19th century and published numerous works in neuropathology, psychiatry, and forensic medicine. Apart from his studies on alcoholic psychosis 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 Korsacov" (Korsakoff's Journal of Neuropathology and Psychiatry) was named after him.

Associated eponyms

 * Korsakoff's psychosis and syndrome: Amnestic-confabulatory syndrome with three salient features (1) severe memory defect, especially for recent events (2) confabulation, i.e. falsification of memory in an alert, responsive individual and (3) polyneuropathy (psychosis polyneuritica), usually associated with alcoholism and malnutrition.
 * 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.