Lee Dongwon, Meredith William, Lebwohl Benjamin
Department of Medicine, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, NY, USA.
Department of Music, San Jose State University, San Jose, USA.
Wien Med Wochenschr. 2025 Mar;175(3-4):60-67. doi: 10.1007/s10354-023-01010-y. Epub 2023 Apr 18.
Beethoven's autopsy findings of cirrhosis may have been due to alcoholism. This condition may have been underemphasized historically, given its stigma and the incongruence with the often heroic portrayal of Beethoven. We therefore aimed to compare how medical experts and biographers writing for a non-medical audience describe his final illness in the context of alcoholism. English-language biographies were identified using a survey of biographies of Beethoven and supplemented by the authors. English-language medical publications were identified by searching for "Beethoven" in the PubMed® MEDLINE database. We included studies that mentioned Beethoven's final illness and death. We recorded statements regarding alcohol consumption, alcoholism, or alcohol use disorder, and the role of alcohol in Beethoven's death. The most commonly cited final illness was liver disease. Alcohol use was more frequently mentioned in biographies, but alcoholism less so. Alcohol use was invoked as a possible cause of final illness more frequently by medical publications.
贝多芬尸检发现的肝硬化可能是由酗酒所致。鉴于酗酒的污名以及这与贝多芬通常英勇形象的不一致，这种情况在历史上可能未得到充分重视。因此，我们旨在比较医学专家和面向非医学受众写作的传记作者如何在酗酒背景下描述他的末期疾病。通过对贝多芬传记的调查并由作者补充，确定了英文传记。通过在PubMed® MEDLINE数据库中搜索“贝多芬”来确定英文医学出版物。我们纳入了提及贝多芬末期疾病和死亡的研究。我们记录了关于饮酒、酗酒或酒精使用障碍的陈述，以及酒精在贝多芬死亡中的作用。最常被提及的末期疾病是肝病。传记中更频繁地提到了饮酒，但酗酒提及较少。医学出版物更频繁地将饮酒作为末期疾病的可能病因。
