From NJtoday.net: Complete Post through this link…
ngd-The ignoring of physical symptoms, and the blaming of every symptom on the psychiatric diagnosis is so common, that I have a hard time with the “breakthrough” language for something that has been possible to diagnose for at least a decade. Such “psychiatric projection” pccurs because professionals will simply not conisder it possible. This process regularly results in the death of persons because of a failure to institute early treament. It is a gross and unforgivable form of ableism…
In a groundbreaking medical breakthrough, a woman who had been in a catatonic state for over two decades awakened after receiving targeted treatments for an autoimmune disease that was attacking her brain.
April Burrell, a former straight-A accounting student, developed psychosis at the age of 21 and was diagnosed with severe schizophrenia.
For years, she remained trapped in her mind, unable to communicate or take care of herself.
However, new research suggests that a subset of psychiatric patients may have an underlying autoimmune condition that mimics schizophrenia, leading to misdiagnosis and ineffective treatments.
The remarkable story of April Burrell’s awakening began in 2018 when Sander Markx, director of precision psychiatry at Columbia University, and his colleagues rediscovered her case.
They found that although April’s symptoms closely resembled those of schizophrenia, she also had lupus, an autoimmune condition.
Further investigations revealed that her immune system was producing antibodies that were attacking her brain, particularly the temporal lobes associated with schizophrenia and psychosis.
This discovery challenged the conventional understanding of April’s condition and raised questions about how many other patients may have been misdiagnosed. The medical team at Columbia University assembled a multidisciplinary group of experts to explore the link between autoimmune diseases and psychiatric disorders. The results were astounding.
They identified around 200 patients with autoimmune diseases who had been institutionalized for years due to psychiatric symptoms. The findings suggest that underlying autoimmune and inflammatory processes may be more prevalent in various psychiatric syndromes than previously believed.
The implications of this research extend beyond April Burrell’s case. By identifying the autoimmune cause of her symptoms, researchers have opened new avenues for treatment and care for patients with severe psychiatric conditions.