PSP was first described as a distinct and separate disease in 1964 by three Canadian neurologists, Doctors Steele, Richardson and Olszewski.
However, Charles Dickens in his book The Lazy Apprentice made reference to the symptoms of PSP in 1857. Likewise French Physicians studied the brain in the late 1800's and made reference to such a disease. So, clearly PSP is not a new disease, yet it remains still a much mis and undiagnosed disease.
Albeit Drs.Steele, Richardson and Olszewski gave PSP its name, for over twenty years many people referred to it as 'Steele-Richardson-Olszewski' Syndrome after them. In France, it is still frequently referred to as ‘La Maladie Richardson'. There is, as stated above, evidence that PSP existed prior to the turn of the 20th century though, until 1964, it was usually considered by the medical profession to be just an aggressive form of Parkinson's disease, which has similar early symptoms.
It is now known that PSP is clinically, biologically and pathologically a quite different and distinct disease.
In PSP tangles of the protein ‘tau' form in the brain and can be seen on post mortem examination of brain tissue. These tangles are characteristic of PSP and related ‘tauopathies' (including Alzheimer's disease, though here the tangles form in a different part of the brain), but are not characteristic of Parkinson's disease.
Although there is some overlap between PSP and related neuro-degenerative diseases, we are beginning to find out more about how these diseases work. In the future it is hoped that scientists will discover the causes of PSP and CBD so that effective treatments and an eventual cure can be found.
Find out more about research into PSP.