Aretrospective diagnosis (alsoretrodiagnosis orposthumous diagnosis) is the practice of identifying an illness after the death of the patient (sometimes a historical figure) using modern knowledge, methods anddisease classifications.^[1][2] Alternatively, it can be the more general attempt to give a modern name to an ancient and ill-defined scourge or plague.^[3]

Retrospective diagnosis is practised by medical historians, general historians and the media with varying degrees of scholarship. At its worst it may become "little more than a game, with ill-defined rules and little academic credibility".^[2] The process often requires "translating between linguistic and conceptual worlds separated by several centuries",^[4] and assumes our modern disease concepts and categories are privileged.^[4] Crude attempts at retrospective diagnosis fail to be sensitive to historical context, may treat historical and religious records as scientific evidence, or ascribe pathology to behaviours that require none.^[5] Darin Hayton, ahistorian of science atHaverford College, claims that retrodiagnosing famous individuals with autism in the media is pointless, as historical accounts often contain incomplete information.^[6]

The understanding of the history of illness can benefit from modern science. For example, knowledge of the insect vectors ofmalaria andyellow fever can be used to explain the changes in extent of those diseases caused by drainage or urbanisation in historical times.^[3]

The practice of retrospective diagnosis has been applied inparody, where characters from fiction are "diagnosed"; e.g., authors have speculated thatSquirrel Nutkin may have hadTourette syndrome^[7] and thatTiny Tim could have had distalrenal tubular acidosis (type I).^[8]

Post-mortem diagnosis is considered a research tool, and also a quality control practice^[9] and it allows to evaluate the performance of theclinical case definitions.^[10] The termretrospective diagnosis is also sometimes used by aclinical pathologist to describe amedical diagnosis in a person made some time after the original illness has resolved or after death. In such cases, analysis of aphysical specimen may yield a confident medical diagnosis. The search for theorigin of AIDS has involved posthumous diagnosis ofAIDS in people who died decades before the disease was first identified.^[11] Another example is where analysis of preservedumbilical cord tissue enables the diagnosis ofcongenitalcytomegalovirus infection in a patient who had later developed acentral nervous system disorder.^[12]

• DidAbraham,Moses,Jesus,Saint Paul orMuhammad have psychotic spectrum psychological symptoms?^[13]
• DidTutankhamun haveKlippel–Feil syndrome?^[14]
• DidAlfred the Great haveCrohn's disease?^[15]
• Didbotulism cause the religious visions experienced byJulian of Norwich?^[5]
• Was theEnglish sweat caused byhantavirus?^[3]
• Was theBlack Death due tobubonic plague?^[5]
• Was "the great pox"syphilis or several venereal diseases?^[3]
• Did KingGeorge III of the United Kingdom exhibit the classic symptoms ofporphyria?^[16]
• Were the conditions blamed on witches at theSalem witch trials caused byergotism?^[15]
• DidNapoleon die fromstomach cancer, or was he poisoned witharsenic?^[17]
• CouldFranklin D. Roosevelt's paralytic illness have beenGuillain–Barré syndrome rather thanpoliomyelitis?^[18]
• DidAbraham Lincoln haveMarfan syndrome?^[19]
• DidKarl Marx havehidradenitis suppurativa?^[20]
• CouldBurke and Wills have died ofthiaminase poisoning?^[21]
• DidRené Descartes haveExploding head syndrome?^[22]

There have been many published speculative retrospective diagnoses of autism of historical figures. English scientistHenry Cavendish is believed by some to have been autistic.George Wilson, a notable chemist and physician, wrote a book about Cavendish entitledThe Life of the Honourable Henry Cavendish (1851), which provides a detailed description that indicates Cavendish may have exhibited many classic signs of autism.^{[23][24][25][26]} The practice of retrospectively diagnosing autism is controversial. ProfessorFred Volkmar ofYale University is not convinced; he claims that "There is unfortunately a sort ofcottage industry of finding that everyone has Asperger's."^[25]

• Charles Darwin's illness
• List of people with epilepsy (includes notes on retrospective diagnosis and misdiagnosis of historical figures)
• Mental health of Jesus
• Paleopathology
• Samuel Johnson's health

• Mackowiak, Philip A. (2007).Post-Mortem: Solving History's Great Medical Mysteries. The American College of Physicians.ISBN 978-1-930513-89-1.
• Historical Clinicopathological Conference

• Retrospective diagnosis
• Forensic pathology

• CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list
• Webarchive template wayback links
• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata