Sergei Korsakov

Sergei Sergeyevich Korsakov (1854 to 1900) was a Russian neuropsychiatrist known for his studies on alcoholic psychosis, and his name is attached to Korsakov syndrome and to Wernicke-Korsakov syndrome. Born in Gus-Khrustalny, he studied medicine at Moscow State University, graduated in 1875 and became a physician at the Preobrazhenski mental hospital. His thesis Alcoholic Paralysis earned him a medical doctorate in 1887, and in 1892 he became professor extraordinarius at a new university psychiatric clinic, later holding the chair of neurology and psychiatry until his death at forty-six. He described an amnestic-confabulatory syndrome marked by severe memory defect, confabulation and polyneuropathy, usually linked to alcoholism and malnutrition. He wrote a textbook of psychiatry published in 1893, supported non-restraint treatment, and helped found the Moscow Society of Neuropathologists and Psychiatrists.