What is now believed to have been the cause of George III's mental illness?

deaconblues63

George III became seriously ill in 1788. The illness was considered madness at the time, but modern research has suggested that he actually suffered from a severe form of porphyria, a metabolic disorder caused by chemical insufficiency in hemoglobin production. Symptoms include skin sensitivity, strong abdominal pain and port wine coloured urine accompanied by psychiatric symptoms. In severe cases, the illness causes convulsions and death. The theory that George had suffered from porphyria was first put forward by the British Psychiatrist, Ida MacAlpine and her son, Richard Hunter in 1966. http://www.englishmonarchs.co.uk/hanover_3.htm Mar 30 09, 8:42 AM

zbeckabee

Despite the lack of direct evidence, the notion that George III (and other members of the royal family) suffered from porphyria has achieved such popularity that many forget that it is merely a hypothesis. The insanity exhibited by King George III evidenced in the regency crisis of 1788 has inspired several attempts at retrospective diagnosis. The first, written in 1855, thirty-five years after his death, concluded he suffered from acute mania. M. Guttmacher, in 1941, suggested manic-depressive psychosis as a more likely diagnosis. The first suggestion that a physical illness was the cause of King George's mental derangements came in 1966, in a paper "The Insanity of King George III: A Classic Case of Porphyria", with a follow-up in 1968, "Porphyria in the Royal Houses of Stuart, Hanover and Prussia". The papers, by a mother/son psychiatrist team, were written as though the case for porphyria had been proven, but the response demonstrated that many, including those more intimately familiar with actual manifestations of porphyria, were unconvinced. The theory is treated in Purple Secret, which documents the ultimately unsuccessful search for genetic evidence of porphyria in the remains of royals suspected to suffer from it. In 2005 it was suggested that arsenic (which is known to be porphyrogenic) given to George III with antimony may have caused his porphyria. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porphyria Mar 30 09, 10:39 AM

star_gazer

Stress. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stress_(medicine) Mar 30 09, 5:09 PM