Authors' Note: General paresis of the insane, known by the initialism GPI, was recognized as a distinct disease in 1822, and considered by the Victorians to be a form of madness in persons, primarily men, of dissolute character. It took another century until it was confirmed that it was caused by spirochetes, causative organism for syphilis, damaging the brain in the late (tertiary) stage, and that its progression could be halted by antibiotics such as anti-malarial arsenicals and, after 1940, penicillin. Once a relatively common problem on a global scale, GPI now seems to be confined to developing countries.
You can review verses on this topic in a wider context in a post on our full-service blog "Edifying Nonsense" by proceeding to 'Ruination, Rumination and Reminiscence: STD-Poetry'. Click HERE.
This verse also relates to a series on organic causes of neuropsychiatric symptoms, such as hypothyroid depression, and frontal meningioma.
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