General paralysis, mental disease that is manifested in a terminal or tertiary state of syphilis, originated a great interest in the Antioqueño’s psychiatrist team, due to its nosological characteristics as well as to its syphilitic nature. However, it differentiated itself from the other mental illnesses, when being diagnosed and treated with medicine. This article deals with the definition of general paralysis, a diagnose and treatment given at the Manicomio Departamental de Antioquia to the patients with this disease from 1930, year in which the population of the mental hospital demonstrated a notorious increment, to 1950, moment in which penicillin was introduced as an essential medicine.