Considerations about the Neuropsychiatric Conditions of Quixote of La Mancha

Abstract

Don Quixote of La Mancha, the picturesque character created by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra in his immortal book The Ingenious Nobleman Sir Quixote of La Mancha, presents several neuropsychiatric conditions, including tremor, sleep disturbances, neuropsychiatric symptoms, syncope, perception disorders and traumatic brain injury. Throughout the masterpiece, there are episodes where the aforementioned disorders are evident. This paper makes a list of them and analyses them in the light of the current knowledge of those conditions.

Keywords: Alucinación; Hallucination; Major depressive disorder; Medicina en la literatura; Medicine in literature; Mental disorders; Sleep-wake disorders; Trastorno depresivo mayor; Trastornos del sueño-vigilia; Trastornos mentales.