2017.08.29 04:33
Portrait of the Physician
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2017.08.29 04:36
2017.08.29 04:45
This Figure is a portrait of the physician, Dr. Gachet, painted by Vincent van Gogh. Dr. Gachet apparently prescribed foxglove, which can be seen in the foreground of this portrait, for van Gogh. It has been speculated that van Gogh may have been experiencing digitalis toxicity when he painted some of his works[1] – and a better example of the evidence for this will appear next.
2017.08.29 04:49
The Night Café (of note, xanthopsia means yellow vision)
2017.08.29 06:39
This is a fascinating story.
There is a reasonable medical suspicion that the doctor Van Gogh obviously liked
was poisoning him or giving him significant side effects with Foxglove(medicinal plant
that has digitalis) that was apparently used to treat Van Gogh for whatever condition.
Yellow vision and halos are well known side effects of digitalis, and Van Gogh used
plenty of them in his famous paintings.
I must say his doctor may have contributed to Van Gogh's arts unintentionally.
Thirty some years ago one of my young female patients with atrial tachyarrhythmia and
rheumatic heart disease attempted suicide by taking a whole bottle of digoxin 0.25 mg tabs,
and I had to watch her in the hospital closely until everything was clear.
I got to observe all the side effects of digitalis, including yellow vision and all sorts of arrhythmia.
2017.08.29 06:54
2017.08.29 07:06
Among cardiologists in recent years it's been controversial
whether or not digitalis is beneficial in treating patients with
CHF and normal sinus rhythm.
The review of all the evidences by Drs. Patterson, Adams et al
show that it is beneficial as long as we keep the serum digoxin level
between 0.5 and 0.9.
Digitalis works like a double-edge sword and causes arrhythmias
if the digoxin level is higher than 0.9.
Out of the presentation by Dr. Patterson at a recent seminar
I got the story of Vincent Van Gogh, which I put on here on our page.
JAMA. 1981 Feb 20;245(7):727-9.
Van Gogh's vision. Digitalis intoxication?
Lee TC.
Abstract
Vincent van Gogh, the Dutch postimpressionist painter, died in 1890. He was an uncommon man. Automutilation, depression, insanity, and suicide are part of his medical history. During the last few years of his life, his paintings were characterized by halos and the color yellow. Critics have ascribed these aberrations to innumerable causes, including chronic solar injury, glaucoma, and cataracts. Van Gogh may have been under the influence of digitalis intoxication and its side effects: xanthopsia and coronas. This hypothesis is based on his twice having painted his physician holding a foxglove plant; that this medicine was used in the latter part of the 19th century in the treatment of epilepsy; and that the toxic effects of digitalis may have, in part, dictated the artist's technique.