--- ---  # This is How Alzheimer's Disease Got Its Name ## Video: The Island That Holds the Secret to Long Life [Watch (HLS stream): The Island That Holds the Secret to Long Life](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/orlnwhNb.m3u8) (7:08)  _Published 2014-05-23. Here's how the people of Ikaria, Greece reach old age_  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Jul 15, 2015 3:00 PM UTC  An undated portrait of Alois Alzheimer, German psychiatrist and neurologist An undated portrait of Alois Alzheimer, German psychiatrist and neurologistApic / Getty Images  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Jul 15, 2015 3:00 PM UTC It was on this day, July 15, in 1910 that the second volume of the German book _General Psychiatry_ was published. Though the book was written by eminent psychiatrist Emil Kraepelin, it ended up preserving the name of a different doctor: it was the first time that a type of dementia was described as “Alzheimer’s disease.” The name was in honor of Alois Alzheimer, another German psychiatrist, who in 1906 identified the cases of dementia described by Kraepelin. The pair were quite familiar with each others’ work. As recounted in Konrad and Ulrike Maurer’s _Alzheimer: The Life of a Physician and the Career of a Disease_, Kreapelin worked closely with Alzheimer, who even filled in for the former at work when he was busy writing _General Psychiatry_. Alzheimer had originally been Kraepelin’s research assistant in the medical school in Munich, and it was there that he was able to create a lab dedicated to research in brain science. As TIME described in a 1983 article about the disease’s prevalence, Dr. Alzheimer had noticed that the brain of one of his patients—known as Auguste D—looked different from other brains: --- > “” --- Alzheimer died in 1951. **_Read the full story from 1983, here in the TIME Vault:_** [Slow, Steady and Heartbreaking](http://time.com/vault/issue/1983-07-11/page/78/) Alzheimer's Disease History: Who Was Dr. Alois Alzheimer? ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3954151/alois-alzheimer-disease/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3954151/alois-alzheimer-disease/"},"headline":"This is How Alzheimer's Disease Got Its Name","datePublished":"2015-07-15T15:00:58.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T09:09:32.126Z","description":"It was coined on July 15, 1910","url":"https://time.com/3954151/alois-alzheimer-disease/","keywords":["health","medicine","Alzheimer's"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1325bd4325484885/69885a755f570f9b49b1c65d/alzheimer.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1325bd4325484885/69885a755f570f9b49b1c65d/alzheimer.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Alois Alzheimer","caption":"Alois Alzheimer","creditText":"Apic / Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/health/","name":"health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3954151/alois-alzheimer-disease/","name":"This is How Alzheimer's Disease Got Its Name"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"The Island That Holds the Secret to Long Life","description":"Here's how the people of Ikaria, Greece reach old age","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/orlnwhNb/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-05-23T20:32:12.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/orlnwhNb.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3954151/alois-alzheimer-disease/","duration":"PT7M8S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3954151/alois-alzheimer-disease/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```