Fever therapy for general paresis

Malaria Fever Therapy for General Paralysis of the Insane: A Historical Cohort Study

“…Although MFT has been used for thousands of patients across the world and has greatly contributed to the knowledge of malariology [8], its value for treatment of GPI remains doubtful. The reported magnitude of success of MFT was highly variable and the rapid and widespread acceptance of this therapy probably reflects the absence of an effective treatment for this disease at the time [5]. …”

“…Prior to MFT, all patients underwent a detailed examination, since high spikes of malarial fever could be exhausting, especially in conditions like (syphilitic) heart disease, cachexia, diabetes mellitus, obesity, and tuberculosis [5,6]. Noteworthy, in 8 of 43 cases treated with MFT, an indication of syphilitic aortic heart disease existed.…”

“…Despite the reported beneficial effect of malaria fever treatment (MFT), its risks were considerable. Treatment mortality rates varied from 4, 3% [3] to 20% [4,5,6,7,8]. …”

Healing with malaria: a brief historical review of malariotherapy for neurosyphilis, mental disorders and other infectious diseases

“…Reports from the Middle Ages describe improvement in patients in asylums stricken by cholera. In the 15 th century, Ruy Diaz de Isla was the fi rst to report that fever had a benefi cial effect on syphilis 3 . However, 350 years later, Wagner-Jauregg, the father of malariotherapy, described in detail experiments with induced fever in GPI patients.…”

“…The real effi cacy of malariotherapy for GPI or other mental diseases has never been analyzed under modern clinical epidemiology studies 3 . However, the dissemination of the therapy among physicians and institutions was considered a guarantee that GPI patients, who used to be sentenced to death, would present a signifi cant improvement or at least live longer.…”