Digestive Diseases of 80 Composers (Addictions Included)
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Pathographies Alcoholism and Psychiatry Research 2017;53:55-64 DOI: 10.20471/apr.2017.53.01.06 Received October 3, 2016, accepted after revision January 20, 2017. Digestive diseases of 80 composers (addictions included) Darko Breitenfeld, Roland Pulanić, Mislav Pap, Ankica Akrap, Božidar Grgić, Ivana Rešetar Croatian Physicians’ Music Society (CMA), Zagreb, Croatia Abstract – Based on study of pathographies we noticed eighty cases of digestive diseases among compos- ers. The most important composers are presented in the form of short pathographies, and the others were briefly mentioned in the following list. Mentioned diseases influenced the creativity of composers and their life expectancy. Keywords: composers, digestive diseases, addictions Copyright © 2017 KBCSM, Zagreb e-mail: [email protected] • www.http//hrcak.srce.hr/acoholism Introduction childhood, when he went down with small- By studying more than ten thousand biog- pox. In his youth he suffered from inflam- raphies of composers and more than a thou- matory catarrhs, probably because of the sand pathographies we selected composers Eustachi´s tube inflammation. Since 1789, with diseases of the digestive system (80). he had been having diarrhea. In his youth Some composers are presented in the form he starts to loose hearing. In 1795 and 1796 of short pathographies and arranged chron- colics and diarrhea reoccur in greater inten- ologically by year of birth. We mentioned sity. These cramps had often last for several other composers in an additional list [1-13]. weeks, but is never stated a tinge of blood in the stool, although he kept complaining about Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) his hemorrhoidal disturbances. Diarrhea was often accompanied by fever, exhaustion and Ludwig van Beethoven was a German weakness, what forced him to stay in bed for composer, pianist and conductor. The his- a longer period of time. Diarrhea is men- tory of his illnesses can be traced back to his tioned in 1801, 1804, 1809, 1812 and 1816, and was also present in his last years. The most probably cause of diarrhea was post- Correnspodence to: Darko Breietenfeld dysenteric enterocolonopathy, and inflam- Derenčinova 25, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia e-mail: [email protected] matory bowel disease (IBD) is also possible. Beethoven’s liver disease emerged in 1821. By 56 mid-1821 he got jaundice-icterus from which increased, he had breathing difficulties, spat he suffered for weeks. In 1825 he started to blood, perspirated heavily at night. His hands vomit blood (hematemesis) and bleed from were shaking at conducting. He aged rapidly, his nose (epistaxis). From his thirties because his hair form grey and his body was covered of depression caused by hearing loss he was in rashes. He lost weight. Severe cough with prone to alcohol. He was trying to treat these stabbing chest appeared, with severe cramps, disturbances with alcohol, but he recognized diarrhea, loss of appetite and occasional fe- that it had not been beneficial. He used to ver and he died in agony. The autopsy found drink about hundred grams of absolute al- an ulcer on the left side of his throat, lungs cohol per day, usually one liter of wine. The full of tubercles with two egg sized cavern. liver disease from 1821 was most probably Massive intestine tuberculosis was not de- caused by infectious hepatitis, which (with tected probably because no autopsy of bowel the abuse of alcohol) further progressed to was performed. liver cirrhosis. In 1825 liver cirrhosis reached its acute phase with general deterioration, Gioacchino Rossini (1792 – 1868) portal hypertension and ascites. Analyses Italian composer. He was probably in- showed Beethovenʼs hair was exposed to fected with gonorrhea already with fifteen lead poisoning at the time of death, but anal- years. Soon, the disease became chronic, ysis of the skull showed that the poisoning with number of new infection. Otherwise, lasted longer. Lead poisoning can cause head- he was a relatively sickly, with frequent sore ache, fatigue, difficulty concentration - per- throat inflammations, occasionally intensi- sonality changes and other health cutaneous fied (perhaps angina or diphtheria). He had a and diarrheal problems. That could explain hypochondriacal traits and occasionally lon- Beethoven’s bad behavior, anger and aversion ger depressive phase when separated from to cooperation. society. Already in 1825 he was seriously ill Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826) for the first time and he was confined to bed for weeks. In 1831 these symptoms were German composer and conductor. In his repeated. He also suffered from back pain childhood he was marked by gentle physical with expressive depresive moods and general constitution, general sensitivity and morbid- nervous exhaustion. From 1838 he became ity. He was ailing since he was 25, suffering extremely sickly. He suffered from chronic from heavy diarrhea, probable as a conse- urethritis with purulent discharge and very quence of virogenic enteritis, caused by sal- deficient stream of urine, due to urethral ste- monella or coli bacteria. Next year he suf- nosis. He had strong joint pains, probably fered from his first lung problems with pain within gonorrhoic arthritis. These disorders in his chest, explained as rheumatism. He felt were accompanied by the hemorrhoids with seriously ill and was confined to bed. Next frequent bleeding and eczema of surround- year he had frequent sore throat with fever, ing region, which was manifested by strong caughs which became more frequent and he pruritus. In addition, there were gastric prob- generally felt worse. Soar throats and head- lems and frequent diarrhea (alcohol abuse, aches were more often in the following years possible inflamatory bowel disease; ulcer- around became even weaker. His hoarseness atice colitis). That led to general exhaustion, Alcoholism and Psychiatry Research 2017;53:55-64 Breitenfeld, Pulanić, Pap, Akrap, Grgić, Rešetar 57 extreme weight loss, mental depression and ders, with lack of appetite, and, as he had de- withdrawal from society. He was treated per- scribed, extensive inflammatory gastrointes- sistently in a number of spas and was recov- tinal bile fever which required venepunction ering, becoming of better mood and rein- and application of emetics. At that time it forced and so spent ten happiest years of his was thought that the bloodletting and emet- life. However the first signs of physical fail- ics have a cleansing effect. A few years later ure occured. Because of the obesity, he was the condition recurred. These summer diges- less mobile, he became dyspnoic, with cardi- tive disorders were followed by attacks of di- ac and vascular disorders. These disturbances arrhea, so it is considered that he was likely later amplified and catarrh with cough and suffering from dysenteric syndrome (or in- sputum occured, probably within bronchitis flammatory bowel disease; Chron disease). with emphysema. In 1866 he had an intesti- During the summer of 1835 he was feeling nal catarrh, and later that year, also a minor bad and, plagued by a series of digestive trou- brain stroke with temporary paralysis from bles, he shuns society. A few days before his which he was recovering very slowly. He was death, his condition deteriorated markedly. more and more dyspnoic, anxious and he suf- He had a fever and bloody mucoid stools, he fered from insomnia. In 1867/1868 he had lost consciousness, he had seizures and died. erysipelas on the right leg and his intestinal His last illness, from which he died within a disturbances especially worsened. He collaps- few days, was clinically presented as a sub- es more and more and was tied to the bed, acute dysenteric syndrome. Autopsy revealed listless, with no appetite. He suffered from pathological changes in the large intestine an expressive anal pruritus, with pain in the (numerous ulcerations of purulent content) rectal area which was getting worse. Doctors and in the liver (abscess full of pus). For sev- have not found anal fistula, but rectal exami- eral years he suffered from uncharacteristic nation established abscess. Further exami- gastrointestinal disturbances corresponding nations were interrupted due to pneumonia to “chronic” intestinal amebiasis, and macro- with severe cough and fever from which he scopic autopsy report also speaks for a retro- was hardly recovering. Due to the increasing spective diagnosis of severe amebiasis intestinal ileus and other intestinal disorders he underwent in November 1868. the opera- Hector Berlioz (1803 – 1869) tions of the colon. It was found an advanced French composer and conductor. He was rectal cancer and necrotic tumor mass was re- rigid and naive enthusiast, with a female sen- moved. He was further treated unsuccessfully sibility, excessive, with sudden changes of and died in a coma. mood, so often depressed. Some fifteen years he had suffered from “intestinal pain (neural- Vincenzo Bellini (1801 – 1835) gia)” (or irritable bowel syndrome) and these Italian composer. He was always over- cramps he often treated with laudanum, opi- sensitive and nervous, also lacking resistance um preparation. A few months before his towards illnesses. Since the childhood his death in the coastal walks he falled twice and digestion was easily upset and he inclined injured his head, which can be interpreted as to summer diarrheas. During the summer a transient ischemic attack, or the collapsing of 1830, he was affected by digestive disor- states and seizures. Until the death he be- Digestive diseases in composers Alcoholism and Psychiatry Research 2017;53:55-64 58 came more and more apathic and depressed, Louis Moreau Gottschalk (1829 – 1869) more tied to the bed and gradually declined American composer and pianist. He was in the growing opium and arteriosclerotic de- traveling a lot in the tropics and he was suf- compensation. He had the final stroke with fering from tropical diseases of the digestive aphasia, and later paralysis of the limbs and system. He died of appendicitis and perito- tongue, which progressed to the agony, coma nitis.