Van Gogh had Meniere's disease and not epilepsy
I. K. Arenberg, L. F. Countryman, L. H. Bernstein and G. E. Shambaugh Jr
International Meniere's Disease Research Institute, Colorado Neurologic Institute, Englewood 80110.
We intend to correct the historical error that Vincent Van Gogh's medical
problems resulted from epilepsy plus madness, a diagnosis made during his
life but for which no rigid criteria are apparent. Review of 796 personal
letters to family and friends written between 1884 and his suicide in 1890
reveals a man constantly in control of his reason and suffering from severe
repeated attacks of disabling vertigo, not a seizure disorder. His own
diagnosis of epilepsy was made from the written diagnosis by Dr Peyron, the
physician at the asylum of St Remy (France), wherein on May 9, 1889, Van
Gogh voluntarily committed himself to the asylum for epileptics and
lunatics. However, the clinical descriptions in his letters are those of a
person suffering from Meniere's disease, not epilepsy. The authors point
out that Prosper Meniere's description of his syndrome (an inner-ear
disorder) was not well known when Van Gogh died and that it often was
misdiagnosed as epilepsy well into the 20th century.
