#anti nmdar encephalitis

[cannibalsmayhem]

— Hello . If it wouldn't be too much of a bother , could you maybe coin 'trans anti-NMDAR encephalitis' ? Would be greatly appreciated . < 3 ' 🦌 ; anon '

( Will reference ... )

' 🥩 ; hannibal "

[flock-of-cassowaries]

I really don’t think that parsley-thyme infusion is going to make it through the blood-brain barrier. Like, I don’t know, perhaps it’s compromised if you have, say, untreated anti-NMDAR encephalitis… but even then, it’s been what - 20 minutes?

So he’s just doing it to terrorize Will.

Fucking hell man.

[cedarxwing]

Random worldbuilding stuff

De figuris Veneris, Chapter 12-19

Spinal tap procedure

Treatment for Anti-NMDAR Encephalitis. Again, this form of encephalitis was not documented in medical literature until 2007.

Arm port insertion. Peripheral IVs with internal catheters were introduced later in the 80s, so also slightly anachronistic, but PICC insertion is way more invasive than standard cannulation, and we're going for medical horror here, so I went with it.

Chest port insertion apparently became a thing in 1982, so it's not entirely anachronistic (but this is probably isn't the exact procedure that would be used for plasmapheresis... oh well!)

Plasmapheresis

Urinary Catheter Insertion (warning: pictures of a dummy)

Neural mechanisms and circuitry of the pair bond. I don't think there were that many studies on prairie voles back in the 80s, but the thought of Hannibal reading scientific papers in order to figure out how to get Will to like him was too precious. :'( His big evil plan was... to cuddle... oh my heart.

I took a line from Italian Wikipedia's article on Piazzale Michelangelo.

The Lungarni are the streets running parallel to the Arno River in Florence.

Bernini's Saint Lawrence (San Lorenzo) at the Uffizi Gallery. I took more Italian from Wikipedia.

Tests for catatonia/echopraxia

Pigeon with Carrots starter

Coratella con Carciofi

San Lorenzo's final words

Bernini and Michelangelo

Famous Bernini thigh squeeze...

Black Mountain Rag played on piano. Now imagine it on harpsichord. (Black Mountain Rag was Will's song with Molly in Red Dragon)

Judith and Holofernes in the Sala dei Gigli. It was referenced briefly in Chapter 19 of Hannibal.

Hair shaft analysis for drug testing wasn't that advanced in the 80s, but it's cool so I wanted to include it anyway. I think the first sectional analysis was performed in 1989.

Wikipedia has many fantastic articles on Blake's poetry. I took a quote from Harold Bloom on A Poison Tree and the Clytie comparison and a quote from Northrop Frye from Ah! Sun-flower.

Not to be a major literature nerd, but Will's inner monologue ("...and time itself was like a river, flowing on an endless course...") is supposed to be a counterpoint to what Hannibal is always quoting ("everything must change, but nothing perishes"). Both quotes are from The Metamorphoses. Will is letting go of the past, accepting that time always moves forward, while Hannibal is always holding onto the past, trying to reverse his teacup. :(

"Will stood at the edge of a dark ocean, at the mercy of the moon, the breeze that beat upon him, and the waves that invited him. Foam curled around his feet and coiled like serpents around his ankles. Looking out at that black expanse, the old terror flamed up for an instant, then sank again. He walked out into its sensuous embrace." <- entirely taken from the last page of The Awakening by Kate Chopin.

Next: Chapter 20

[madeofbees]

bitches really be compulsively drawing clocks and waking up their wife to check it for them

it’s me, i’m bitches

[encephalitide]

Demonstration of anti-NMDAR antibodies in the CSF is required to establish a definitive diagnosis. Many patients diagnosed with anti-NMDAR encephalitis have demonstrated intrathecal antibody synthesis, and thus, CSF may be more sensitive than serum testing (100% compared to 85.6%, respectively). Moreover, serum antibody synthesis is more readily modulated by immunosuppressive treatments (e.g., IVIG, TPE, rituximab), and thus, CSF testing is preferred (Staley et al., 2020).

[mousemilf]

need me a man with anti-nmdar encephalitis

[ssaseaprince]

Will flinches away from Hannibal during an argument (angst & hurt/comfort)

(I LOVED the other request you wrote!!)

Sorry this took so long to get out, it ended up quite a bit longer then I originally intended but I hope you like it ! Also thank you so much <3

The first couple months after the fall had been rough, physically, having to go into hiding while their bodies were on mend. Hannibal's wounds, gruesome as they were, healed relatively quickly and without much fuss. Will on the other hand, had almost died. He had taken a stab to the shoulder, which shouldn’t have been the problem that it was, except that it got infected. He was stuck on the brink of death for quite a long time, and then spent the month after he was stabilized in and out of consciousness, high on painkillers. Hannibal had always been good at working and functioning under pressure, which was good because if he hadn’t been they probably would have died. The first time Will had come to full consciousness, however, Hannibal was a wreck. He’d cried then. Not a soft trickle of a few tears, but gut-wrenching sobs full of shaking shoulders and an ocean full of tears. Will cherished that memory, as he did with every memory of Hannibal crying. They made him human, seem more touchable. The first time he had cried in front of Will, they had been standing on the cliff right before they fell, and the next time was when Will had first woken up. He cried when Will spoke for the first time too, so long after the fall. The first time they made love, Will’s neck was wet with his tears. When Will said “I love you” the first time.

Will never took Hannibal as someone who cried very often, and he never had been. That was until the fall, until Will. The fall had been a rebirth for both of them, it didn’t only symbolize Will’s becoming. And then Will had gotten sick and Hannibal had almost lost him, and Hannibal was again reminded how precious life really is, and how easy it would be to lose him. They both made it through, but all the walls and forts between them had crumbled, and they were left exposed to each other. There wasn’t any reasoning or any point in trying to put them back up, because by then their souls were permanently intertwined. Will could read him no matter what anyways, so things like silence and shouting were equally expressive. Hannibal still didn’t cry a lot by any means, but he did cry (genuinely, cry) now on occasion, whereas he hadn’t really ever before.

They didn’t fight much. Of course they got on each other's nerves at times and had tendencies to snap at one another when they were irritated, but actual full blow fighting and arguing was extremely rare.

Today wasn’t like that though.

It was about two years after the fall, and they had finally settled down in Lakonia, an administrative region of Greece that’s in the southeastern part of the Peloponnese peninsula. They’d eventually been officially declared dead, and the last year and a half had been good. Both were more than content to let the past mostly stay where it was and move forward, and their days blended together in a mix of hunting and domesticity. They’ve been happy, but they out of anyone should know how easily the calm can be shattered.

It started like it had before. Sleepwalking, gradual hallucinations, losing small bits of time. Will knew what it was, but he avoided telling Hannibal about it. He supposes he was scared, scared to lose the peaceful (peaceful in their own way) domesticity they had settled into. Scared of how it would affect their relationship. Hannibal had changed a lot since the fall and since his time in prison, and Will knew logically he didn’t need to worry. But the nightmares were full of flashbacks to ticking lights and needles, and he grew more and more distant, and Hannibal’s concerned eyes followed him everywhere.

It shouldn’t have taken him as long as it had to realize it, so when he finally did Hannibal was disgusted with himself. Will had been deliberately hiding it from him, but still, he felt he should’ve noticed sooner. Anti-NMDAR Encephalitis was known to be recurrent. It was extremely important that Will got treatment as soon as possible, especially since he had gone so long without it last time. The only option Hannibal had was to confront him.

That all led up to now. Their first real fight since the fall.

“Your health is of the utmost importance Will, you cannot be keeping things like this from me.” Frustration leaking into his tone, Hannibal leaned against the kitchen counter. Will was sitting across from him on a barstool, nursing a glass of whiskey. Will was annoyed, he knew he shouldn't be annoyed but he was. He knew Hannibal was just concerned, but it felt overwhelming, and he couldn’t help but wonder how genuine the concern was. The past couple of weeks he found himself falling back into old thinking patterns, reminiscing about the past. He knew the Hannibal in front of him was completely different then the Hannibal he had first met, but he couldn’t help but to compare his abundance of concern now to the great lack of care he had before.

He grimaced, “Well I don’t need you freaking out. I can take care of myself, always have.”

“For the most part, yes, you can. But you aren’t doing a good show it right now, Encephalitis is life threatening if left untreated, you are aware of that. You cannot just ignore it.” Hannibal’s usual calm façade was slowly slipping. “With everything you've been through, you’re honestly willing to die by a treatable disease? You’re not stupid, Will.”

Taking another drink of his whiskey, he rolled his eyes. The alcohol was making his thoughts fuzzy, but goddamnit was he too sober for this.

“I wasn’t going to let it go on forever Hannibal, you’re right, I’m not that fucking stupid. You’re just overreacting and being dramatic, like always.” He raised his glass to take another drink only to have it roughly pulled from his grasp.

Looking up, he glared at the man across from him. “What the fuck Hannibal?”

Hannibal's calm was practically nonexistent at this point, and he slammed the glass down on the other side of the counter before looking back at Will. “Are you so insistent on being self destructive? You’re acting like a child Will, refusing help.”

Will let out a loud, overexaggerated sigh. His voice was rough when he spoke, the tone of it slowly rising. “Well what am I supposed to do? It’s not like I can just walk into a hospital and ask them to help me treat a rare disease that I’m known for having had before. Maybe I’ve just been trying to figure out what to do, I’m not completely incompetent you know.”

Hannibal’s clenched fists rested on the counter. “You could ask for help! We could get the right supplies and treat you, without needing to go to the hospital. You know that, you are just being unnecessarily difficult.”

Will stood, the stool pushed behind him as he glared at Hannibal. “Yeah well maybe I don’t want your help, you don’t exactly have the best track record of making good medical decisions for me.”

Hannibal’s next words came out in a raised voice, not exactly a yell, but they seemed to take up all the air from the room. “I am not going to stay here and watch you kill yourself. I’d thought better of you Will, but if that’s how you chose to act I am not going to stay here for it.”

And Will flinched.

The small, unconscious action sent Hannibal reeling, as he looked back over what he had just said. He didn’t think of himself as an impulsive person, he didn’t think he was the kind of person who said things they didn’t mean out of anger, but Will seemed to bring that out in him. He and Will were so far beyond lies and manipulation, they were rarely things that were worried about within their current relationship. But watching Will so blatantly refuse to take care of himself, putting himself in danger by refusing help, was unbearable. So he threw out the first thing he thought of to get Will’s attention, for him to realize just how serious he was. He’d never leave him, they’d consummated their marriage in the depths of the ocean, and an infinite amount of times over since then.

It took him a minute to grasp what he had even said as he stared at Will across the kitchen. It was such a preposterous thing to think, let alone say that it took him a moment to understand the words had actually come out of his mouth. Will had frozen up, and Hannibal could almost see the walls being thrown up and forts being built, and it sent a pang of icy dread through his heart.

“I’m not refusing treatment, I just needed time to get used to the idea of you helping me, since you’re the reason I almost died last time. And here I was feeling bad because I was thinking you’re not like that anymore.” Will wasn’t glaring at him anymore, but his body language was rigid and the words he spoke were flat. “If you’re going to leave, just leave Hannibal, you don't need to find excuses to. You can cut the act.”

“Will.. “ The words seemed stuck in his throat as he said them. “I didn’t mean that.”

‘No, just go. If you think so low of me then just leave. Don’t want you feeling obligated to take care of me, since ya know, I obviously can’t take care of myself.” And with that, Will turned to leave, grabbing his keys and starting to put on his coat. He wasn’t full on drunk, but tipsy enough that he swayed slightly when he walked.

“Will, you don’t have to go.” Hannibal grabbed his arm gently, turning him to look at him. “You’re too intoxicated to drive right now.”

Will shook his head and roughly pulled his arm away. He needed to be alone and it irritated him that Hannibal was telling him what to do, but he had to accept his logic. And driving after he'd been drinking wouldn't fare well in the argument that he could take care of himself. “Fine, then you can get the fuck out.”

“Will…” Hannibal’s voice was soft, “I didn’t mean it.”

“I don’t care, just get out. At the very least just give me some space.”

Hannibal didn’t want Will to feel more pushed, but he had to add, “alright, but don’t drink anymore. It will worsen your condition. Please, Will.”

Will sighed, rubbing a hand over his face. “Yeah, whatever. Just go.”

Hannibal nodded and stepped away, he got his own coat and pulled the front door open. Hesitating, he turned back and looked at Will, who was staring at the floor. “Please be safe.” Will just waved his arm indicating that he should go, and with that, Hannibal stepped out onto the porch and then closed the door.

Will was exhausted, his head was throbbing and his eyes stung. With Hannibal gone, the tears finally began to steadily fall from his eyes. After a while of standing there, staring at the front door, he ended up stripping down to his boxers and laying down in their bed. Penelope, their little King Charles Spaniel puppy, watched him from the doorway. A few minutes later, she was picked up and snuggled in Will’s arms on the bed. Hannibal hadn’t wanted a dog, but he accepted that living with Will meant they were bound to get one. He tried to be apathetic towards her when Will first brought her home, a scrawny little stay, but the affection in his eyes was unmistakable. The little dog followed him everywhere now, and they ended up bonding very quickly. Will had even joked that Hannibal liked Penelope more than him. As he held her and pressed his face against her fur, Will thought back on those memories fondly.

His mind palace was nowhere near as vast or intricate as Hannibal’s, but he still had memories there that he clung to. Closing his eyes, Will went back to the ones he cherished the most.

The tears that had clung to Hannibal’s lashes, barely visible in the dark of the night after they killed the dragon.

The sobs that came from Hannibal’s lips when Will had first woken up.

The few drops that fell from his eyes when Will had spoken to him for the first time in his recovery.

The little gasps of breath that had accompanied the multitude of fallen tears that came the first time they made love (calling it anything else wouldn’t encompass it enough).

When Will had said “I love you” to him the first time and silent rivers had run down his cheeks as he’d smiled so vibrantly it was hard to look at.

He knew Hannibal hadn’t meant it, that he was just frustrated and fed up and worried. They wouldn’t survive separation, and Hannibal needed Will just as much as Will needed Hannibal, they needed each other to live. He knew Hannibal loved him, his love was as real and tangible as those tears he’d cried.

Will loved their lives, and he didn’t want anything to cause a rift in that. He trusted Hannibal and he knew he would take care of him and help him to the best of his abilities. But to see his concern in comparison to the first time he got sick, was jarring, and Will almost didn’t know how to handle it. Hannibal had turned himself in and spent three years in jail for Will, and he was sure if he decided he wanted to go to the hospital to get treated, even if it risked exposing them, Hannibal would take him in a heartbeat. It shouldn’t be, but the depth of Hannibal’s affection for him was still surprising at times.

Will acknowledged that being worried about Hannibal’s reactions to him being sick was justified, and that there would probably always be times where the trust between them wavered because of the past, but he knew Hannibal wouldn’t ever leave.

He’d call Hannibal in the morning he decided, give them both time to calm down. And with that last thought, he tried to sleep for the night.

When the sun came up, Will was thankful. He’d spent the night tossing and turning, fighting off nightmares when he did manage to sleep. More than once he found himself reaching out to the other side of the bed for Hannibal, only to find that he wasn't there. Getting up, Will put on a simple plain shirt and pair of sweatpants and went to make coffee. Their coffee maker had been outrageously expensive, but Hannibal had insisted on it, and it ended up being worth it. Now, looking at the stupidly expensive coffee maker brought Will a strong feeling of longing. Hannibal had only been gone a night and Will felt like he was already falling apart. Calling Penelope to come with him, Will picked up his phone and decided to sit on the porch to call Hannibal, deciding that the fresh air would do him some good. He wasn’t sure what he was going to say, but he just needed him back.

Will wasn’t someone who was very jumpy at all, but when he opened the front door and turned to see Hannibal sitting with his back against the house, Will startled so badly he almost dropped his phone.

Hannibal turned at the sound of the door opening and looked up at Will with puffy eyes and red cheeks dried with tears. Internally, Will sighed. He looked like he’d been there all night. Wordlessly, Will reached down and pulled Hannibal to his feet and then brought them both inside. He helped Hannibal get off his coat and then stripped them both down to their boxers, before pulling them in their room and into bed. They curled up around each other, Will’s face pressed against Hannibal's chest and Hannibal's arms around him, running his fingers through Will’s hair. They laid in silence together for a while, just counting each other's breaths and heartbeats.

Eventually, Hannibal broke the silence, his voice raspy and quiet. “I’m sorry.”

Will took a breath before answering.

“I’m sorry too.”

Pressing his face into Will’s curls, Hannibal's breathing hitched. “I wouldn’t ever leave you, not again.”

“I know Hannibal,” Will responded. He pulled back a little so they were looking at each other. Hannibal’s eyes were wet with tears as he looked back at him.

Leaning forward, Will kissed away the few droplets of water that had escaped.

“I was going to tell you, I just needed to work up to it.’

Hannibal was silent for a moment before he replied. “I understand your hesitation. If you wish to go to the hospital and be treated there, we can go. There would be a risk, but we can make it work if that is what you want.”

Will shook his head. “I want you to treat me. I just needed to get out of my head.” He smiled at the terrible pun, watching to see if Hannibal would react.

He didn’t, continuing to stare at Will mutely.

Will sighed, again. “Help me, Hannibal. Please?”

Hannibal nodded at that, pressing his forehead against Will’s, wet cheeks brushing against dry ones.

“Of course beloved. Anything you want.”

Will filed away the memory into his memory palace, and placed it with all of the other times Hannibal had cried for him. Beautiful reminders of his humanity.

“I love you, Hannibal.”

“I love you too Will, always.”

[revelaare]

( kit harrington, 30, male, he/his, cousin & offspring of dimitri ) Did anyone else just see KONSTANTIN VASILE ? I hear for the VASILE family they can be a bit BROODY & LOST. But I also heard they can be INTELLIGENT & DETERMINED If you dare, I hear they frequent THE PINT in their spare time when they aren’t being an BOYEVIK. 

tw: murder and auto immune disease.

konstantin, or known to the vasile’s just as kon, was always the quiet kid that loved his family. he was pushed into the gang environment at a very young age.

kon idolised his father. however, he realised the relationship between dimitri and the other vasile children was strained. he aimed to try and mend and mediate the pressure building within the family, despite it mostly not working.

between his obligations to the family, and his job as a boyevik, kon spent most his time away from the vasile’s. 

he saw darkness down the line for the mafia, finding great frustration in watching the strain between his siblings and father grow. all the love in his heart couldn’t fix the problems. nor could he be the machine of a man his father wanted him to be.

so for a while, kon completely vanished off the grid after a final argument with dimitri before his death. he, and his bike, went missing for a year. 

kon came back home to see great changes in the family, especially since his sister would then be appointed by eli as the new leader. kon expected the family to self destruct, but he was pleasantly (but cautiously) happy by what he saw. 

kon didn’t speak much of his time away from home, rather preferring to get back to business and work, keeping his family close. any questions usually received a dismissing grunt. but there is a peculiar scar on his left arm that raises eyebrows about what he got up to. 

in may, kon started experiencing fever sweets and occasional blackouts after experiencing a virus, which he managed to hide from the family. and perhaps from himself. but kon was unable to deny his changing health. memory issues, hallucinations, and seizures.

during a blackout, he committed a murder. he later found out the woman he killed was carrying a child. luckily, the baby survived.

in june, konstantin was admitted into hospital for treatment. his brain on fire, kon’s body was losing control. missing out on the events of the washington gala. he was diagnosed with anti-nmdar receptor encephalitis. 

kon doesn’t remember much of his time in hospital, nor does he want to. the more time he spent trapped behind 4 hospital walls, convinced he was letting down the family.

now in recovery and getting back out into the world, kon’s determined to find the child who’s mother he killed. some told him to forget about the baby, but he couldn’t swallow the guilt of making the child an orphan. 

[tiggymalvern]

Medical Meta - Will’s encephalitis

I'm seeing commentary on anti-NMDA encephalitis going around in the fandom again, and it bugs me because that diagnosis fits so badly with the show. Fortunately it can also easily be negated by canon, so here's my summary of the series canon and the medicine and how they intersect: Hannibal and Dr Sutcliffe look at Will's MRI and conclude that he has encephalitis. They suggest that he might have anti-NMDA encephalitis. I say suggest, because while you can sometimes diagnose encephalitis from an MRI, you can't diagnose which type. A diagnosis of the cause of the encephalitis requires a cerebrospinal fluid analysis, which of course Hannibal and Dr Sutcliffe never perform because they tell Will his MRI was normal. Later in the show, we have two statements that Will's encephalitis had a viral cause: 1x13 37.40 Hannibal by Will’s hospital bed: “They’ve placed him in an induced sleep and they are treating him with anti-viral and steroid therapies.” 2x03 17.10 Alana practicing her upcoming testimony for the defence lawyer: “I believe Will’s empathy disorder combined with the effects of viral encephalitis - do we have to do this like this?” Both of these statements about a virus take place after Will is hospitalised and presumably has undergone the full diagnostics to give a definitive cause for his encephalitis and has had treatment. In other words, the viral diagnosis is far more likely to be the correct one than the original speculation about anti-NMDA. The nice thing about the viral encephalitis diagnosis is that Will gets treated for it with drugs, gets cured, and can move on with his life and it will never recur. Anti-NMDA encephalitis is actually a complete pain as a disease for Will to have, both in canon and as fic writers. Recovery from it is extremely slow; many months at least, sometimes a year or more. A significant number of patients never make a complete recovery at all. That form of encephalitis happens when the body makes antibodies to your own brain tissue - the reasons why the body makes those antibodies can vary (most commonly it's triggered by a tumour, but there can be other reasons, including a virus), but the problem is that treating the original cause doesn't remove the antibodies. The body keeps on producing those. The patients who have tumours are the ones more likely to make a full recovery after the tumour is removed. The ones without tumours are more likely to have lifelong issues. If Will Graham had anti-NMDA encephalitis, he either had major surgery for cancer which is never mentioned in canon or he's chronically ill. He would still have to live on immunosuppressant drugs for a long time afterwards, perhaps even lifelong - if he stopped them, his encephalitis would come right back. Alternatively, there are chemotherapies to destroy the immune system cells that are producing the antibodies, which are also time-consuming and Not Good for short term health. https://www.encephalitis.info/anti-nmdar-encephalitis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-NMDA_receptor_encephalitis So if Will actually had anti-NMDA encepahlitis, he would have been very ill for a considerable period of time and not sitting in the BSHCI looking normal a few weeks later. Viral encephalitis as stated by Alana fits much better with his speedy and complete recovery. In-canon likely reason for the change: Hannibal and Dr Sutcliffe had incomplete information with only an MRI to go on and were speculating on possible causes and got it wrong. Out-of-canon likely reason for the change: The writers screwed up. Whoever wrote episode 1x10 probably thought anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis sounded cool, and then after it was filmed someone else pointed out that they’ve just given Will Graham a serious chronic disease and he's going to be ill for a very long time when he’s supposed to be in the BSHCI plotting revenge on Hannibal, so they changed it to a virus.

[delta-chan]

I feel like my illness requires some explanation. This is usually a story I retell around February for Word Encephalitis Day, but that’s a long way away and being mysterious never helped anyone.

About five years ago I suddenly got an incredibly severe headache that felt exactly like a sinus headache. Thinking this was what it was, I decided to sleep it off--and woke up even worse the next morning with a fever of 103F. I deteriorated over the next week and a half, incapable of eating and slowly losing the ability to walk, the ability to speak, the ability to do pretty much anything. In spite of this, the ER kept sending me back home saying that it was “some kind of flu bug” and to wait it out. Unfortunately, it came to the point where I went to my GP for a followup appointment and just. Began having an incredible amount of seizures right there in the office. They FINALLY admitted me after I was brought in from the ambulance and was clearly not at all fit to be outside the hospital.

I say I am a literal amnesiac, and I mean it. The last thing I remember before I woke from the coma I fell into was having an MRI and seeing the tech in the mirror freak out and immediately remove me from the tube because I was coding. I didn’t even notice I was dying, I just thought “holy shit, what the hell is his problem?” Beyond the coma I’ve lost about two weeks of memory. I frequently ask about what the hell happened because it’s just... a void.

The attempted murderer was anti-NMDAR encephalitis, which presents several different ways--most commonly people suddenly display inexplicable psychosis before their body tries to kill them, but mine skipped the delusion part and hopped right to the “your immune system is actually yandere” point. Around February I tend to tell people to be careful if they notice their thought patterns suddenly shift or they get a pressure headache that doesn’t leave because this illness damn near killed me, gave me epilepsy, made me have to learn to walk and use my hands again, banned me from video games for a while (big tragedy), destroyed my memory and made it so that I have to be supervised when going out/cooking/working with tools because of the absence seizures which made me walk into danger and leave the burner on many, many times. It’s best taken care of before your brain begins trying to leave through the base of your skull. Take it from me.

[madeofbees]

me: today we’re justifying lying to your patient-slash-boyfriend about a life-threatening brain illness and withholding life-saving treatment

wife: no

me: yes, this is what we’re—

wife: no

me: —we’re doing today.

wife: we are not justifying that

me: yes we are

wife: no

me: yes

wife: no

[djguamstyles]

Just finished watching Brain on Fire, on Netflix, with @tintin7117 and @nu_dav, and boy did it bring back a bunch of memories of last Summer. There were so many "yup, that happened to us too!" moments in the movie. So crazy. Glad to see that Anti-NMDAR Encephalitis is getting some awareness on such a huge platform like Netflix. 🙌🏽🙏🏽👊🏽 #brainonfire #antinmdareceptorencephalitis #antinmda #antinmdar #encephalitis

[encephalitide]

Hannibal 01x10: Buffet Froid // Clinical experience and laboratory investigations in patients with anti-NMDAR encephalitis (Dalmau et al., 2011) // Overlapping demyelinating syndromes and anti-N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor encephalitis (Titulaer et al., 2014) 

[victoriagarcia77]

Possible Explanations for What Caused the “Fits” of the Bewitched

Today, during our class discussion, I thought about how shocking it is that we will never truly know the reason why the Salem Witch Trials began, despite them being one of the most infamous historical events in American history. The unexplained “fits” of the girls who were thought to be bewitched were particularly interesting to me because I am an analytical person who seeks rational explanations. The girls’ behavior, however, is described as anything but rational. The children were said to have acted strangely, contorting their bodies into awkward positions, barking like dogs, and crying out due to blows from invisible objects, amongst other things (American Witches 112). Because I wanted a more straightforward answer as to what caused these “fits,” I did some research of my own to find some potential answers.

One possible explanation, as discussed in class and in the readings, is convulsive ergotism. Convulsive ergotism is a disease caused by eating bread or cereal made of rye that has been infected with the fungus ergot. Ingesting the fungus can cause vomiting, choking, fits, hallucinations, and the sense of something crawling on one’s skin which would explain some of the girls’ behaviors. This theory, while convincing, has been widely rejected because the “bewitched” people did not display the full array of symptoms that accompany this disease. Additionally, the “fits” that the girls suffered from seemed to happen at opportune times, which would have been unlikely if the disease was the culprit.

Another theory that I came across was that one of the afflicted girls had a rare neurological condition called anti-NMDAR encephalitis. This disease causes a flu-like illness and within weeks, the person would ultimately be consumed by paranoia and racked with insomnia. Seizures, writhing and contorted limbs, odd repetitive movements of the mouth and tongue would then follow. Mass hysteria would explain why other girls began to fall ill after the first one. However, this theory can also be refuted by the same reasoning that rejected the previous theory.

Unlike the first two theories, Godbeer, the author of “The Salem Witch Hunt,” posits one that is not explained by disease. He offers the idea that the girls acted in the way that they did as a means of expressing their anger and resentment towards the Puritanical establishment without having to take responsibility for their emotions. Since many of the bewitched women were orphans, they knew they were not likely to get married and, as a result, their value to society would continue to decrease as they got older. This realization caused feelings of jealousy and discontent within the girls. Therefore, by claiming that they were bewitched, they shifted the blame for their “sinful” feelings to someone else (Godbeer 24).

Others have suggested that the “fits” could have been caused by some combination of stress, asthma, guilt, boredom, child abuse and/or epilepsy. However, the only thing we know for sure is that we will never know. And while I am a detail-oriented person, I think there is some beauty in leaving some things unexplained. It adds some mysticism to the world. Having said that, I think I am satisfied not knowing for certain what happened.

[rudrabassmahakal]

Summary: When autoantibodies are able to enter the bran and act on NMDA receptors, people experience relief from symptoms of anxiety, depression, and stress. Source: Max Planck Institute If the immune system attacks its own body, it can often have devastating consequences: autoantibodies bind to the body’s structures, triggering functional disorders. The receptors for glutamate, a neurotransmitter, can also become the target of autoantibodies. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Experimental Medicine in Göttingen have been investigating the circumstances under which autoantibodies for a particular glutamate receptor—known as the NMDA receptor—are formed, and their effects in the brain. The researchers have discovered that the level of these autoantibodies in the blood can fluctuate considerably over a person’s lifetime—independent of health conditions—and increases with age. Chronic stress can, however, drive up the concentration of these autoantibodies in the blood even in early life. According to the researchers, when the antibodies are able to enter the brain to act on NMDA receptors, people suffer less depression and anxiety. These autoantibodies are clearly acting as the body’s own antidepressants. Glutamate receptors sit in the nerve cell membrane and bind to glutamate, a neurotransmitter. The NMDA receptor is a receptor type essential for learning and memory. Up to 20 percent of the population have antibodies against this receptor in their blood. Usually, the blood-brain barrier prevents these antibodies crossing from the blood into the brain. Only if this barrier is damaged can the antibodies have any greater effect. If the antibodies bind to NMDA receptors in the brain, these are then removed from the nerve cell membrane (‘internalized’). This disrupts the signaling to neighboring cells. If an inflammation is present in the brain, for example, due to a viral infection, the presence of these autoantibodies can lead to a so-called ‘anti-NMDAR-encephalitis’: an illness brought to the public’s attention by the 2016 film “Brain on Fire.” The effect of these NMDA receptor autoantibodies can typically influence the symptoms of the underlying encepha (at New Delhi - The Capital Of India) https://www.instagram.com/p/B9UtBTnH5yW/?igshid=1gk8sooi5rmnr

[daniablub]

Anti-NMDA Receptor Encephalitis or Primary Psychiatric Disorder?

Anti-NMDAR encephalitis is a rare, immune-mediated disease that is usually found in children and young adults; in about 90% of cases, patients will have prominent psychiatric and behavioral symptoms. Medscape Medical News from Medscape Medical News Headlines https://ift.tt/3b1emc9 via IFTTT