“My year of unraveling” is how Christy Morrill described the nightmarish months when his immune system hijacked his brain. A sudden attack by his own immune defenses erased his short-term memory and triggered severe delusions before he gradually recovered, an experience that highlighted the rapid onset of autoimmune encephalitis.
Morrill went for a bike ride with friends along the California coast, stopping for lunch, and neither he nor his companions noticed anything wrong during the outing. The first sign of the medical crisis appeared later, when his wife asked how the ride went and Morrill had completely forgotten it.
The condition worsened as holes in his memory grew and delusions set in. Morrill wrote of feeling “unhinged” and “fighting to see light” during the months his body’s immune response spiraled out of control.
Of all the ways an immune system can damage the body instead of protecting it, autoimmune encephalitis is among the most unfathomable. Seemingly healthy people abruptly spiral into confusion, memory loss, and seizures as rogue antibodies begin attacking brain tissue. The condition strikes without warning, damaging the organ that governs personality and cognition.
Doctors are getting better at identifying the disease thanks to the discovery of a growing list of these rogue antibodies. When the antibodies are detected in a patient’s blood and spinal fluid, they aid the diagnosis and guide medical intervention.
“Every year new culprit antibodies are being uncovered,” said Dr. Sam Horng, a neurologist at Mount Sinai Health System in New York who has cared for patients with multiple forms of the disease.
The identification of specific antibodies allows physicians to recognize the mysterious illness before the neurological damage becomes severe. Medical researchers continue to map the various forms the disease takes, giving neurologists better tools to track the immune system’s assault on the central nervous system.