{"id":13935,"date":"2025-11-23T20:00:33","date_gmt":"2025-11-23T12:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=13935"},"modified":"2025-11-23T20:00:33","modified_gmt":"2025-11-23T12:00:33","slug":"the-rare-autoimmune-disease-that-hijacks-patients-brains-and-treatments-in-development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=13935","title":{"rendered":"The rare autoimmune disease that hijacks patients\u2019 brains, and treatments in development"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cMy year of unravelling\u201d is how a despairing Christy Morrill described the nightmarish months when his immune system hijacked his brain.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Autoimmune encephalitis attacks the organ that makes us \u201cus\u201d, and it can appear out of the blue.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Morrill went for a bike ride with friends along the California coast, stopping for lunch. None of them noticed anything wrong. Neither did Morrill until his wife asked how his ride had gone \u2013 he had forgotten.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Morrill would get worse before he got better. \u201cUnhinged\u201d and \u201cfighting to see light\u201d, he said delusions set in and holes in his memory grew.<\/p>\n<div class=\"image-inline-container e1a5rv550 css-1llrc1m e1yqhwb40\" data-qa=\"Component-renderMap-StyledDiv\">\n<div class=\"image-inline caption e1fvabeq0 css-19sk4h4 ea9pn0s0\" data-qa=\"Component-Container\">\n<figure class=\"image-inline caption ea9pn0s1 css-1qeofuq e1gf69pb0\" data-qa=\"ArticleImage-ArticleImageContainer\">\n<div data-qa=\"ArticleImage-handleRenderImage-ImageContainer\" class=\"css-0 e1gf69pb3\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Morrill walks along San Francisco Bay, where he used to give guided kayak tours before being struck by autoimmune encephalitis, in Redwood City, California. Photo: AP\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/img.i-scmp.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/fit=contain,width=1024,format=auto\/sites\/default\/files\/d8\/images\/canvas\/2025\/11\/21\/d9e8992f-dfa8-427b-a133-7fdef46ee7e8_1126e908.jpg\" title=\"Morrill walks along San Francisco Bay, where he used to give guided kayak tours before being struck by autoimmune encephalitis, in Redwood City, California. Photo: AP\"\/><\/div><figcaption data-qa=\"ArticleImage-DescriptionContainer\" class=\"css-1ixmelf e1gf69pb1\">Morrill walks along San Francisco Bay, where he used to give guided kayak tours before being struck by autoimmune encephalitis, in Redwood City, California. Photo: AP<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1xdhyk6 ec74h0k0\">Of all the ways our immune system can run amok and damage the body instead of protecting it, autoimmune encephalitis is one of the most unfathomable. Seemingly healthy people abruptly spiral into confusion, memory loss, seizures and even <span data-qa=\"Component-Text\" class=\"css-0 ef9u0v00\">psychosis<\/span>.<\/div>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">But doctors are getting better at identifying the condition as they discover more of the rogue antibodies responsible for it. Finding these in the blood or spinal fluid can aid diagnosis.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/lifestyle\/health-wellness\/article\/3333639\/rare-autoimmune-disease-hijacks-patients-brains-and-treatments-development?utm_source=rss_feed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cMy year of unravelling\u201d is how a despairing Christy Morrill described the nightmarish months when his immune system hijacked his brain. Autoimmune encephalitis attacks the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1864,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[10544,938,5496,7792,10545,4999,7790,10546],"class_list":["post-13935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bored-interesting","tag-autoimmune","tag-brains","tag-development","tag-disease","tag-hijacks","tag-patients","tag-rare","tag-treatments","wpcat-33-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13935"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13935\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}