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Thomas Addison

Thomas Addison (1793–1860) was an influential English physician and pioneer in endocrinology, best known for identifying Addison's disease—a life-threatening form of adrenal insufficiency characterized by symptoms such as skin pigmentation, weakness, and gastrointestinal distress—and for describing pernicious anemia (now known to result from vitamin B12 deficiency), leading to severe anemia and neurological issues.^[1]^[2]^[3] Born in April 1793, in Long Benton near Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Addison was the son of Joseph Addison, a prosperous grocer and flour dealer, descending from a long line of Cumberland yeomen.^[1]^[2] He received his early education at the Royal Free Grammar School in Newcastle before enrolling at the University of Edinburgh in 1812, where he earned his Doctor of Medicine degree in August 1815 with a thesis on syphilis and mercury treatment.^[1]^[2] After graduation, Addison relocated to London, serving briefly as house surgeon at Lock Hospital and as a pupil at the Public Dispensary, before qualifying as a Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians in 1819.^[1] Addison's career was deeply intertwined with Guy's Hospital in London, where he began as a perpetual pupil in 1817 and remained for over 37 years, rising to assistant physician in 1824, lecturer in materia medica in 1827, and full physician in 1837.^[3]^[2] Elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in 1838, he became a prominent clinician and teacher, contributing to the hospital's reputation through meticulous pathological observations alongside contemporaries like Richard Bright and Thomas Hodgkin, forming the renowned "Guy's trio" of 19th-century physicians.^[1]^[2] His lectures on materia medica were highly popular, and he published key works, including Elements of the Practice of Medicine (1839), which detailed practical diagnostics.^[1] Addison's most enduring contributions came from his clinical research on glandular diseases; in a landmark 1849 lecture, he first outlined pernicious anemia, linking it to gastric atrophy, and in 1855, he published the monograph On the Constitutional and Local Effects of Disease of the Suprarenal Capsules, systematically describing adrenal gland pathology based on postmortem examinations of 11 cases, establishing the clinical syndrome now bearing his name.^[1]^[3] These discoveries laid foundational principles for endocrinology, emphasizing the role of endocrine organs in systemic health, though Addison himself did not fully grasp the hormonal mechanisms involved.^[1]^[2] In his later years, Addison suffered from chronic depression, exacerbated by health decline, leading to his resignation from Guy's Hospital in 1860; he died by suicide on June 29, 1860, in Brighton at age 67, and was buried at Lanercost Abbey.^[1]^[3] His legacy endures through the eponymous disease, a bust and ward at Guy's Hospital, and his role in advancing clinical pathology and medical education.^[2]^[3]

Early Life and Education

Birth and Family Background

Thomas Addison was born in April 1793 in Longbenton, a village near Newcastle upon Tyne in Northumberland, England.^[2] He was the younger son of Joseph Addison, a prosperous grocer and flour dealer whose business benefited from the region's growing colliery trade, and his wife Sarah.^[2]^[1] The Addison family traced its roots to yeomen farmers who had been established for generations at Lanercost in Cumberland, providing a stable rural background that contrasted with the industrial stirrings around Newcastle.^[2] Joseph's success in trade offered financial security, enabling investments in his children's education and social advancement, though specific details on Addison's siblings remain limited beyond indications of a sizable family.^[2] This early environment in a modest yet aspiring household laid the groundwork for Addison's later pursuits, transitioning into formal schooling at local institutions in the region.

Schooling and Medical Training

Thomas Addison received his early education at the Long Benton parish school, a modest institution run by the local parish clerk, Thomas Rutter, in a roadside cottage near his birthplace. He later attended the Royal Free Grammar School in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, where he excelled in classics, particularly Latin—proficiency in which he maintained throughout his career by taking notes in the language—and began developing an interest in the sciences.^[1] Supported by his family, Addison enrolled as a medical student at the University of Edinburgh in 1812. There, he pursued a rigorous course of study in medicine, culminating in his conferral of the Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree in August 1815. His inaugural dissertation, titled Dissertatio medica inauguralis quaedam de syphilide et hydrargyro complectens, examined the constitutional and systemic effects of syphilis as well as the role of mercury in its treatment, reflecting the era's debates on venereal diseases and therapeutic agents.^[1]^[4] After graduation, Addison relocated to London, where he took up the position of house surgeon at the Lock Hospital, a facility specializing in venereal diseases, in 1815. He then served as a pupil at the Public Dispensary from 1815 to 1817, studying dermatological conditions under the prominent physician Thomas Bateman, which provided him with practical clinical experience in general medicine and skin diseases. In December 1817, he entered Guy's Hospital in London as a medical student and perpetual pupil to the physicians, marking the start of his hands-on exposure to broader hospital-based observations and patient care.^[1]

Professional Career

Positions at Guy's Hospital

Thomas Addison commenced his professional association with Guy's Hospital in London in December 1817 as a medical student, where he participated in practical training that included direct patient care and anatomical dissections to support the hospital's museum collections.^[1]^[5] During this period from 1817 to 1824, his hands-on involvement familiarized him with clinical operations and prepared him for higher responsibilities within the institution.^[1] In January 1824, Addison was appointed assistant physician at Guy's Hospital, a role that marked the beginning of his formal clinical career and involved supporting senior staff in ward management and patient treatment.^[6] He advanced to full physician in 1837, assuming greater authority over hospital wards, including diagnostic oversight and therapeutic decision-making for inpatients.^[2] By the mid-1850s, specifically around 1854–1855, he had risen to senior physician, guiding the medical staff and contributing to the hospital's operational leadership during a time of institutional growth.^[7] Addison's administrative contributions at Guy's Hospital extended beyond clinical duties, encompassing key committee roles that influenced hospital governance and reforms. In 1846, he advocated for merit-based staff appointments over financial incentives, promoting a system aligned with professional competence.^[5] He chaired the Medical and Surgical Examining Council in February 1852, overseeing evaluations that shaped training standards.^[5] Additionally, in the 1850s, Addison participated in broader hospital committee work addressing operational reforms, including discussions on resource allocation amid evolving medical practices.^[5] His tenure, spanning over four decades until his resignation in 1860 due to declining health, solidified Guy's as a premier center for clinical medicine.^[2]

Teaching and Professional Affiliations

In 1827, Thomas Addison was appointed lecturer on materia medica and therapeutics at the medical school of Guy's Hospital, where his classes rapidly became renowned for their thoroughness and drew large audiences, generating significant fees for the institution.^[1] His instructional responsibilities broadened in 1835 through joint lectures on practical medicine with Richard Bright, and upon becoming a full physician at the hospital in 1837, Addison assumed sole responsibility for these lectures, continuing them until mid-1855.^[2] These hospital positions enabled Addison to integrate teaching directly with clinical practice, fostering hands-on learning among medical students. His pedagogical style prioritized meticulous bedside examination and the integration of physiological signs with post-mortem findings, encouraging learners to systematically evaluate all potential causes of symptoms rather than relying on rote theory.^[1] Addison's prominence in medical education was complemented by key professional affiliations that elevated his authority. Elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in 1838, he joined an elite cadre of practitioners committed to advancing clinical standards.^[2] He later presided over the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society from 1849 to 1850, a tenure during which he championed rigorous scientific discourse in medicine.^[7] Through dedicated mentorship, Addison shaped the careers of many students at Guy's, emphasizing disciplined observation and diagnostic precision; among them was Jonathan Hutchinson, a pupil who credited the hospital's senior staff, including Addison, for his early clinical development.^[8] His reforms to the curriculum underscored empirical methods over abstract speculation, influencing medical training by promoting a generation of physicians attuned to evidence-based practice.^[9]

Scientific Contributions

Discovery of Addison's Disease

During his tenure at Guy's Hospital, Thomas Addison began documenting cases of a distinctive and fatal disorder characterized by progressive weakness, emaciation, and unusual skin pigmentation, initially noting three such instances in 1849 through autopsy examinations that revealed abnormalities in the suprarenal capsules (adrenal glands).^[1] Over the subsequent years from 1849 to 1854, he observed a total of 11 cases among his patients, all of whom exhibited a consistent pattern of symptoms including profound asthenia (extreme weakness), gastrointestinal disturbances such as nausea and vomiting, mental irritability, and a peculiar bronzing of the skin, particularly in exposed areas and mucous membranes, which he distinguished from other forms of discoloration like jaundice.^[10] These clinical features were invariably linked to rapid decline and death, often within months, underscoring the lethal nature of the condition.^[11] Addison's meticulous postmortem analyses of these cases provided critical pathological insights, demonstrating extensive destruction or atrophy of the suprarenal capsules in every instance, with the glands appearing shrunken, fibrotic, or infiltrated by tuberculous matter, sometimes weighing as little as 49 grains combined and reduced to mere remnants.^[12] He emphasized that this glandular pathology was not incidental but the primary cause of the systemic symptoms, rejecting alternative explanations such as pancreatic involvement that had been proposed in earlier vague reports.^[10] In one notable case, a patient previously under the care of colleague Richard Bright—who had observed similar pigmentation and gastric irritability in 1831—Addison confirmed the adrenal destruction at autopsy, building on but surpassing prior isolated descriptions that had failed to connect the glandular lesions to the full clinical syndrome.^[13] These findings culminated in Addison's seminal 1855 monograph, On the Constitutional and Local Effects of Disease of the Suprarenal Capsules, published in London by Samuel Highley, where he systematically detailed the 11 cases, illustrated with hand-drawn figures of the diseased organs, and established the disease as a distinct entity arising from suprarenal insufficiency.^[14] The work highlighted the progressive and inexorable course leading to fatality, with no effective interventions available at the time, and marked a pivotal advancement in understanding endocrine pathology by prioritizing the adrenal glands' role over previously noted but unlinked symptoms in historical accounts.^[3]

Identification of Pernicious Anemia

In 1849, Thomas Addison presented a pioneering description of what is now known as pernicious anemia in his paper "Anaemia—Disease of the Suprarenal Capsules," published in the London Medical Gazette. Based on observations of 11 cases, he detailed a progressive and fatal form of anemia marked by extreme pallor of the skin and conjunctivae, generalized weakness, languor, faintness on minimal exertion, breathlessness, palpitations, and emerging neurological symptoms such as sensory loss and unsteady gait.^[1] These patients exhibited a flabby rather than emaciated physique, with the disease advancing insidiously over months to years, ultimately leading to coma and death despite supportive treatments.^[15] Addison initially linked the anemia to pathology of the suprarenal capsules (adrenal glands), influenced by concurrent observations of adrenal insufficiency, but emphasized its idiopathic nature due to the absence of evident blood loss, dietary deficiencies, or parasitic causes typical of other anemias.^[16] Through post-mortem examinations of his cases, he identified key pathological correlations, including degeneration of the spinal cord—manifesting as sclerosis in posterior and lateral columns—and atrophic changes in the gastric mucosa, such as thinning of the stomach lining without ulceration.^[15] These findings distinguished pernicious anemia from simpler iron-deficiency anemias, which lacked such neurological and gastrointestinal involvement, and underscored a unified clinical-pathological syndrome rather than disparate symptoms.^[1] Addison's work represented a seminal clinical-pathological synthesis, highlighting the disorder's uniformity across cases and its resistance to conventional therapies like iron supplementation or bloodletting.^[17] Although later research in the 20th century attributed the condition to vitamin B12 malabsorption due to absent gastric intrinsic factor, Addison's original 1849 account focused on empirical symptom profiling and autopsy insights, establishing pernicious anemia as a discrete entity separate from adrenal disorders.^[15]

Other Medical Observations

In addition to his seminal work on adrenal insufficiency and pernicious anemia, Thomas Addison made significant contributions to toxicology through his early investigations into the effects of poisonous substances. In 1829, he co-authored An Essay on the Operation of Poisonous Agents upon the Living Body with John Morgan, providing one of the first comprehensive English-language accounts of how toxins interact with human physiology.^[1] The work detailed the pathological effects of various poisons, including arsenic and mercury, drawing on case studies of both accidental exposures and criminal poisonings to illustrate symptoms such as gastrointestinal distress, neurological impairment, and systemic organ failure.^[18] Addison's emphasis on clinical observation and autopsy findings in these cases underscored the importance of correlating symptoms with post-mortem evidence to understand toxic mechanisms.^[1] Addison also advanced the recognition of acute appendicitis well before its widespread acceptance as a distinct entity. Between 1836 and 1839, in collaboration with Richard Bright, he published reports in Elements of the Practice of Medicine describing inflammation of the cecum and appendix vermiformis, highlighting key symptoms like right lower quadrant pain, fever, and abdominal rigidity.^[1] He noted the frequent occurrence of perforations leading to peritonitis and stressed the urgency of surgical intervention, based on dissections that revealed pus-filled appendices and surrounding abscesses—observations that predated the first appendectomy by decades.^[19] These accounts, derived from meticulous post-mortem examinations at Guy's Hospital, provided early pathological insights into the condition's progression and complications.^[1] Addison's observational rigor extended to respiratory and dermatological pathology, where he relied heavily on post-mortem studies conducted during his tenure as lecturer in morbid anatomy at Guy's Hospital. In 1843, he published Observations on Pneumonia and Its Consequences in Guy's Hospital Reports, reclassifying the disease as a bronchiolo-alveolar process rather than the previously assumed interstitial inflammation; by injecting bronchial trees in deceased patients, he demonstrated purulent exudates filling air cells and bronchi, explaining hepatization and resolution stages.^[1] Complementing this, Addison's lifelong interest in skin disorders—instilled by dermatologist Thomas Bateman—led him to establish Guy's dermatology department in 1824 and describe conditions like xanthoma planum et tuberosum in 1851, using post-mortem correlations to link cutaneous lesions with underlying metabolic and hepatic pathologies.^[1] These efforts exemplified his consistent methodological approach, integrating clinical symptoms with autopsy data to refine disease classifications across specialties.^[20]

Personal Life and Later Years

Marriage and Family

In 1847, Thomas Addison married Catherine Hauxwell, a widow, at Lanercost Priory Church in Cumberland.^[21]^[22] The couple wed in September of that year. This union occurred when Addison was in his mid-fifties, following the establishment of his professional career in London, which provided the stability for such a personal commitment.^[21] The Addisons had no biological children together, though Catherine brought two children from her previous marriage into the family, with Addison assuming the role of stepfather.^[21] The family maintained a household in London during his career at Guy's Hospital, reflecting the demands of his urban medical practice.^[21] They also spent summers in rural settings, consistent with Addison's preference for respite from city life.^[22] Addison's marriage reinforced his deep family ties to Cumberland, the region of his paternal ancestry, including the ancestral home at Banks House near Lanercost.^[21] The choice of Lanercost Priory for the wedding ceremony underscored these connections, and the couple made visits to the area, honoring his yeoman roots in the parish.^[21]

Health Struggles and Retirement

In the 1850s, Thomas Addison began experiencing bouts of clinical depression, characterized by melancholy and despondency, which contemporaries attributed to overwork and intense mental strain from his demanding medical practice, exacerbated by personal losses such as the death of his colleague Richard Bright in 1858.^[1]^[2] These episodes intensified his reclusive tendencies and contributed to a growing sense of professional anxiety, with self-described "awful fits of despondency."^[7] Addison's health continued to decline into the late 1850s, including a suicide attempt in 1858, culminating in his full retirement from active hospital duties in March 1860, prompted by a profound breakdown that included physical weakness and general debility.^[1]^[7] In a farewell letter to his students, he cited "a considerable breakdown in my health" and the "anxieties of professional life" as key factors forcing his withdrawal, after over four decades of service at the institution.^[7] His wife provided steadfast support during this period, helping manage his care as he sought respite from his afflictions.^[1] Following retirement, Addison attempted recovery through rest and travel, relocating to Brighton—a popular Victorian seaside destination prescribed for nervous disorders and melancholy, where the sea air and change of environment were believed to restore vitality under prevailing medical theories of the era.^[1]^[23] He resided at 15 Wellington Villas in the town, embodying the period's emphasis on therapeutic relocation and avoidance of urban stressors to alleviate mental and physical exhaustion.^[23] These efforts reflected broader Victorian understandings of mental health, which often favored environmental cures over institutionalization for conditions like depression.^[23]

Death and Legacy

Circumstances of Death

Thomas Addison died by suicide on 29 June 1860 in Brighton, England, at the age of 67, during a severe depressive episode linked to his prior health struggles. While walking in the garden of his residence at 15 Wellington Villas, he suddenly threw himself over a dwarf wall into the basement area below, falling about nine feet and fracturing his frontal bone upon impact. He was discovered moments later by household servants who had summoned him for dinner, and he succumbed to his injuries shortly after without regaining consciousness.^[1] A coroner's inquest convened the following day, ultimately ruling the death accidental to shield Addison's family from the social stigma of suicide at the time. Despite contemporary accounts indicating intentional self-harm amid his documented melancholia, the verdict emphasized an unintended fall.^[24]^[25]^[9] Addison was interred at Lanercost Priory in Cumberland (now Cumbria), beside the graves of his ancestors. His family expressed profound grief over the abrupt loss, and the news was swiftly relayed to his professional network via announcements in medical periodicals like the Medical Times and Gazette.^[1]^[2]^[3]

Memorials and Enduring Impact

Following Thomas Addison's death, several physical memorials were established at Guy's Hospital, where he spent much of his career. A marble bust, sculpted by Joseph Towne, was placed in the hospital's pathology museum to honor his contributions to medicine.^[1] Additionally, a marble tablet bearing an inscription commemorating his 36 years as a physician and lecturer was installed in the hospital chapel.^[2] The hospital also named a building after him, known as Addison House, reflecting his enduring association with the institution.^[1] Addison's legacy is prominently preserved through medical eponyms, most notably Addison's disease, which describes primary adrenal insufficiency, and Addisonian anemia, referring to pernicious anemia.^[26] These terms underscore his foundational role in advancing endocrinology by linking clinical symptoms to adrenal pathology, and in hematology through his early descriptions of megaloblastic anemia.^[3] His observations continue to influence contemporary research, including studies on adrenal disorders, autoimmune mechanisms in endocrine diseases, and treatments for adrenal crisis, with guidelines still citing his 1855 work as the seminal description over 160 years later.^[26]^[27] In medical history, Addison receives ongoing recognition through portraits in institutional collections, such as an 1838 oil painting by Alfred Hone held by the Royal College of Physicians.^[2] Modern clinical resources, including endocrine society guidelines and reviews, frequently acknowledge his observational precision as a cornerstone of diagnostic approaches to adrenal and hematologic conditions, emphasizing his impact on patient care protocols today.^[28]

References

[1]
Thomas Addison (1793-1860) - PMC - NIH
He obtained his LRCP in December 1819, was promoted to assistant physician and in 1827 became lecturer in materia medica. His lectures were so popular that his ...
[2]
Thomas Addison | RCP Museum
Thomas Addison, MD, was descended from a family of yeomen who had been settled for many generations at Lanercost, in Cumberland.
[3]
Famous Lives - Dr Thomas Addison (1793-1860)
Jun 27, 2023 · Dr Thomas Addison first identified adrenal failure around 1850, whilst at Guy's Hospital, London, where he worked and taught for over 37 years.
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Thomas Addison | Archives of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine
Mar 1, 1999 · Thomas Addison found a coveted place in medical ... He graduated in medicine in 1815, with a thesis entitled “De Syphilide et Hydrargyro.
[5]
[PDF] A biographical history of Guy's Hospital
... Thomas Addison, which had almost been forgotten, and which had remained ... Physician Extraordinary to the Queen. Amongst Gull's medical works, one of ...
[6]
Thomas Addison | Encyclopedia.com
The title of his thesis was“De syphilide et hydrargyro” (“Concerning Syphilis and Mercury”). Guy's Medical School book records his entrance: “Dec. 13, 1817, ...Missing: enrollment | Show results with:enrollment
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Dr. Addison and His Work - Sage Journals
subject of his M.D. thesis was "De Syphilide et Hydrargyro") and in 1817 he paid his fees ... to every one of them, and believe me,. Yours truly and ...
[8]
2013.1-33.EponymsH - Our Dermatology Online
He was a collaborator and biographer of the „Three Great”, contemporary physicians who worked at Guy's Hospital, Dr. Thomas Addison, the discoverer of Addison's ...
[9]
Thomas Addison - Hektoen International
28 ene 2017 · Childhood. Thomas Addison (1793-1860). Thomas Addison spent his early years with his siblings and parents in Northumberland “born to humble ...
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The History of the Discovery of Addison's Disease - Sage Journals
Addison T. (1855) On the Constitutional and Local Effects of Disease of the Suprarenal Capsules. London. Google Scholar.
[11]
[PDF] Thomas Addison and his disease - Grand Rounds
Thomas Addison was born near Newcastle-upon-Tyne, the son of a grocer, graduated from. Edinburgh, and in 1819 was appointed physician to the Carey Street ...
[12]
[PDF] Epidemiology, pathogenesis, and diagnosis of Addison's disease in ...
In the case of idiopathic fibrosis, he noted that “The two adrenals together weighed 49 grains, they appeared exceedingly small and atrophied, so that the ...
[13]
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Addison's Crisis. Addison's Disease. Addison–Biermer Disease. Thomas Addison, Richard Bright and Thomas Hodgkin (all ... Biographical history of Guy's Hospital ...<|control11|><|separator|>
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Mar 14, 2015 · Offsite Link published in London On the Constitutional and Local Effects of Disease of the Suprarenal Capsules (1855). This beautiful ...
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Vitamin B12 deficiency may cause an extraordinary variety of progressive neurologic syndromes. In this article, the author discusses the manifestations of ...
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A review of Addison's original publications demonstrates a firm appreciation of the distinction between pernicious anemia and adrenal insufficiency.
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Article PERNICIOUS ANEMIA FROM ADDISON TO FOLIC ACID
The mysterious nature of pernicious anemia thus interested Thomas Addi-son1when he described the first group of patients in 1849. He said this is “a ...
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Thomas Addison - LITFL
Nov 3, 2020 · Thomas Addison (1793 – 1860) was an English physician. A master of clinical observation and revered in medical history for his discoveries of Addison's Disease ...
[19]
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Jan 30, 2025 · In 1840, Richard Bright and Thomas Addison, in their “Elements of the Practice of Medicine ... perforation in acute appendicitis. JAMA Surg ...
[20]
Thomas Addison (1795–1860) - ResearchGate
Addison questioned the existence of a true interstitial space in the lung. He revealed through diligent postmortem examinations of patients dying of pneumonia ...
[21]
[PDF] Bulletin 94 –Spring 2024 - CLHF - Cumbria Local History Federation
It is known that he had an attachment to the old family home at Lanercost and in 1847 he married Elizabeth Hauxwell, a widow with two children, at. Lanercost ...
[22]
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1079500/
[23]
When Going to the Beach Was Doctor's Orders - History.com
Jul 14, 2025 · The 'Sea Cure' was prescribed for everything from melancholia to cancer to leprosy. Fueled by famous patients like King George III, a medical tourism industry ...Missing: rest | Show results with:rest
[24]
Suicide of Thomas Addison - Oxford Academic
VINCENT J. CIRILLO; The Suicide of Thomas Addison, Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, Volume 40, Issue 2, 1 April 1985, Pages 214–215,
[25]
Thomas Addison - Centre for Suicide PreventionCentre for Suicide ...
... Thomas Addison (1795-1860). Addison was prone to depression, & threw himself from a window to his death. The coroner, however, ruled his death was accidental.
[26]
Adrenal Crisis - StatPearls - NCBI Bookshelf
Etiology. History of Adrenal Crisis. In 1855, Thomas Addison's pioneering work provided the earliest description of adrenal insufficiency, marking a ...
[27]
Adrenal Crisis: Practice Essentials, Pathophysiology, Epidemiology
Mar 28, 2024 · In 1855, Thomas Addison described a syndrome of long-term adrenal insufficiency that develops over months to years, with weakness, fatigue ...
[28]
Diagnosis and Treatment of Primary Adrenal Insufficiency
PAI was first described by Thomas Addison (1) and is therefore commonly termed Addison's disease. ... adrenal crisis and reduce medication side effects. These ...