Charles Lasègue

Charles Lasègue, full name Ernest-Charles Lasègue (September 5, 1816 - March 20 1883) was a French physician who was born in Paris. In 1847 he received his medical doctorate from the University of Paris. In 1848 he was sent to Southern Russia by the French government to research an epidemic of cholera. Afterwards he was a physician at the Salpêtrière, Pitié and Necker hospitals. In 1869 he became professor of clinical medicine at Hôpital Necker, a position he maintained until his death in 1883.

Lasègue originally studied to become a philosopher, but changed to medicine when he was inspired by a lecture given by physician Armand Trousseau (1801-1867). Lasègue would later become an assistant and collaborator of Trousseau's, and he was Trousseau's head clinician for a period of time during the 1850s. Lasègue published well over 100 works and 18 of them were co-written with Armand Trousseau.

Lasègue was versatile in many facets of medicine. In the 1860s he taught classes on nervous and mental diseases. He also considered the disciplines of physiology and psychiatry to be complementary to each other, and was particularly interested in psychosomatic disorders. He described one of the earliest accounts of anorexia nervosa, and also did research regarding delusions of persecution.

As a psychiatrist Lasègue believed that by knowing a patient's history, the cause which created his or her mental imbalance could be found. He emphasized the role of parental attitudes and family interactions to be of supreme importance. In 1877 with Jean-Pierre Falret (1794-1870), he introduced the concept "folie à deux" to describe the appearance of psychotic symptoms in family members or closely associated persons while living together. This concept is sometimes referred to as the Lasègue-Falret syndrome.

Associated eponym:
 * Lasègue's sign: a sign often seen in sciatica or with lumbar disc problems. In sciatica, flexion of the hip is painful when the knee is extended, but pain-free when the knee is flexed.