New Study: Sleep Disturbances in Autoimmune Encephalitis

Seizures and movement disorders are very common in anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis, as well as other forms of autoimmune encephalitis (AE) and researchers have undertaken to study them more closely.Another very commonly seen feature in most AE patients are sleep disturbances, that may manifest in a variety of ways, including insomnia, hypersomnia, dream enactment behaviours, dream-wake confusional states and other parasomnias.

We were therefore pleased to see the publication of a new study by Dr. Gregory Day, the Foundation’s Clinical Director, together with neurology colleagues, Drs. Bucelli and de Bruin at Washington University School of Medicine and senior neurology resident, Maggie Blattner, on this very common and often-times difficult to manage aspect of AE. “There is a need to determine the prevalence of sleep disturbances in AE patients, and to clarify the relationship between specific autoantibodies and disruptions in sleep.”

We invite you to read the study in its entirety at the following link: https://rdcu.be/bmiKG