Re: Anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis: an emerging autoimmune brain disease
My son, an Iraq Veteran, has been in the hospital since June 4th for this disease. He had been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome in December of 2009 and started "not feeling right" in March 2010. He is 22 yrs old.
He was first diagnosed by the VA with acute psychosis. Kudos to the director of the Psyche ward because he felt there was something medically going on and persisted until NMDA was confirmed and re-confirmed.
My son has been mostly catatonic and has hallucinations everyday that he is still in Iraq. There has been some progress after undergoing the IVIG and steroid treatment, but not much. He had his first major seizure last Monday and several smaller ones since. He is on 2 different anti-seizure meds, a psyche med, a beta blocker med and Ativan as needed.
The doctors believe this is as severe a case of NMDA as they have known and read about. I believe there is definately the contributing factor of the PTSD. An interesting side note is that they have done several MRI's and cat scans as well as many other tests and have found no tumors. They say that doesn't mean there is no tumor...they simply may not be finding it.
So in the case that there is no tumor...how does one pick this disease up or how does it start on it's own?
My son, an Iraq Veteran, has been in the hospital since June 4th for this disease. He had been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome in December of 2009 and started "not feeling right" in March 2010. He is 22 yrs old.
He was first diagnosed by the VA with acute psychosis. Kudos to the director of the Psyche ward because he felt there was something medically going on and persisted until NMDA was confirmed and re-confirmed.
My son has been mostly catatonic and has hallucinations everyday that he is still in Iraq. There has been some progress after undergoing the IVIG and steroid treatment, but not much. He had his first major seizure last Monday and several smaller ones since. He is on 2 different anti-seizure meds, a psyche med, a beta blocker med and Ativan as needed.
The doctors believe this is as severe a case of NMDA as they have known and read about. I believe there is definately the contributing factor of the PTSD. An interesting side note is that they have done several MRI's and cat scans as well as many other tests and have found no tumors. They say that doesn't mean there is no tumor...they simply may not be finding it.
So in the case that there is no tumor...how does one pick this disease up or how does it start on it's own?
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