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Richard A. Kunin, MD
San Francisco, Calif

JAMA. 1991;265(6):723.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.—

Porphyria and not Meniere's syndrome is the most likely diagnosis to explain the tragic symptoms of Vincent van Gogh. Arenberg et al¹ base their diagnosis of Meniere's syndrome on van Gogh's letters, which contain descriptions of symptoms that they construe to be tinnitus, vertigo, and nausea, occurring in attacks or clusters. They proposed that van Gogh's hallucinations, both auditory and visual, were a by-product of severe tinnitus.

Indeed, the asylum director, Dr Peyron, wrote that, "van Gogh... is suffering from acute mania with hallucinations of sight and hearing, which may have caused him to mutilate himself by cutting off his ear." The doctor made a diagnosis of "epileptic fits." Van Gogh also wrote: "Due to a bad stomach while attacks were persisting, I could not eat" and "I am unable to describe exactly what is the matter with me; and then there are horrible fits of . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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