“Brain on Fire” Condition Explained: What is Anti-NMDA Receptor Encephalitis?
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Awareness about anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis increased earlier this year when Netflix aired Brain on Fire, a movie that tells the real-life story of one young woman’s experience with the condition.
“Anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis is a condition in which the immune system essentially attacks the brain,” said Felipe De Los Rios, M.D., medical director of the stroke program at Baptist Health Neuroscience Center. “It’s not very common, but is one of the most common causes of autoimmune encephalitis.”
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[Transcript]
[Graphic: Baptist Health South Florida logo, “Brain on Fire” Condition Explained: What is Anti-NMDA Receptor Encephalitis?, gentle music]
[Felipe De Los Rios, M.D., Medical Director of the Stroke Program at Baptist Health Neuroscience Center] Normally, we have this set of mechanisms to protect us against germs and viruses and other harms that might be there in the environment.
But, sometimes your own body starts recognizing as something strange or foreign, your own, parts of your own cells.
[Picture: Brain scan, Graphic: NMDA, N-Methyl-D-aspartic] In this condition in particular, it attacks a receptor called NMDA in your brain.
People who have this condition can start initially by having subtle memory problems, usually is what we called anterograde amnesia. So, it’s things with day-to-day task, appointments, things like that. [Picture: Brain scan] But, it quickly progresses gets worse and worse, to the point that it doesn’t let you function.
The treatment is a combination of immunotherapies. It’s not yet one standardized treatment. [Video: Doctor walking, looking at brain scan] There’s not one way to treat this condition. What they search, is to dampen down your immune response so, that your own body is not attacking that receptor.
It’s not a very common condition like, for example, the flu or something like that. But, it is one of the most common causes of encephalitis, that we can diagnose and now treat.
[Picture: Brain scan] It is very important to have, an early contact with specialists and subspecialists that are familiar with this condition and that have that technology to treat it.
[Video: Front of Miami Cardiac & Vascular Institute, Control room] So, here at Baptist Health, we have the neurologists, the specialists, that are required to diagnose this condition, and we have all the tools to treat it as well.
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