She Was Told It Was Depression. It Was Her Immune System Attacking Her Brain.

In 2017, Alina Sternberg, a psychiatrist, was hit with crushing fatigue and brain fog. Neurologists told her the symptoms were caused by depression.

“No, I can enjoy my life, and I know what depression is... I’m a psychiatrist!” It took 6 more years to discover the culprit.

Alina’s symptoms became progressively worse. By 2023, she spent most of her days in bed.

Not only was she hit with soul-crushing fatigue, but her memory deteriorated. One day, she forgot her way home, a place she had lived for 20 years. Alina asked a colleague at the hospital where she worked if he would check to see if she had autoantibodies in her blood that might be attacking her brain.

He told her, “That is impossible because you aren’t psychotic.” Other neurologists agreed.

Committed to exploring all immunological causes of her condition, Alina traveled to see Ludger Tebartz van Elst, a neuropsychiatrist at the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg in Germany who specializes in identifying and treating autoantibodies that attack the brain.
After a thorough examination, Dr. Tebartz van Elst found autoantibodies in her blood that target a brain protein called contactin-associated protein-like 2 (CASPR2).

CASPR2 is found in the CNS and is crucial to the transmission of neural signals.
Alina was treated with intravenous cortisone, and she “got [her] life back” almost immediately.

Alina could jog a few days after treatment for the first time in nearly a decade.
This is one of many stories revealing how a subset of patients suffering from psychosis, chronic fatigue, memory loss, etc., have autoantibodies in their blood that are attacking the brain.

These autoantibodies are commonly produced in response to a brain infection or a tumor.

Read more here.