Hans Reese

Dr. Reese was recruited to the University of Wisconsin (UW; Madison, WI) by Dr. William Lorenz in 1924. Together with Dr. William Bleckwenn, Reese and Lorenz comprised the professional staff of the Wisconsin Psychiatric Institute and the Department of Neuropsychiatry at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine. Dr. Reese developed a particular interest in neurosyphilis, which, in the 1920s and 1930s, accounted for >10% of all psychiatric illnesses. In the days before effective antibiotic therapy of that disease, somewhat unconventional treatments were utilized. One of them involved the purposeful infection of patients with malarial organisms, with the goal of creating a fever. That technique followed the empiric observation that syphilis sometimes improved after febrile illnesses. Reese collaborated with investigators at other institutions using this approach, known as the "Wagner-Jauregg" treatment. Lorenz and Bleckwenn also focused on neurosyphilis with respect to their research endeavors, and, as the preeminent neurologist of the group, Reese was asked to evaluate the side-effects of experimental antisyphilitic drugs on nervous system function. The trio of physicians at Wisconsin went on to publish more than 100 papers on neurosyphilis; in particular, they developed and refined an alternative to Wagner-Jauregg therapy, using an arsenical medication called tryparsamide. Until the advent of penicillin in the 1940s, it was probably the most effective treatment for…