This Article  • References  • Full text PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in JAMA  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Ralph Colp, Jr, MD
St Luke's—Roosevelt Hospital Center New York, NY

JAMA. 1997;277(16):1275-1276.

	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.

—While I agree with Drs Barloon and Noyes¹ that Charles Darwin had an illness that may be diagnosed as "panic disorder," I should like to make 3 comments about this diagnosis. First, as I have shown, Darwin had episodes of facial eczema that appear to have been psychosomatic in origin and that often were caused by controversies over his revolutionary ideas.² As far as I can determine, skin afflictions are not among the many somatic complaints that comprise panic disorder.

Second, it is possible that Darwin's many gastrointestinal symptoms were the result of Chagas disease, which he contracted by him during the Beagle voyage. This disorder was first active and then became inactive, permanently injuring the parasympathetic nerves of his stomach and making it more sensitive to sympathetic stimulation and hence more sensitive to the psychosomatic impact of his anxieties.³ An organic impairment best explains the lifelong . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?