Unclassified ยท Medical Literature

[Comment] Enduring NMDA receptor encephalitis

Abstract

The groundbreaking discovery of N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) encephalitis almost 20 years ago linked the binding of autoantibodies to a specific brain receptor with widespread neuropsychiatric symptoms.1 This disease has always raised questions at the heart of traditional distinctions between neurological and psychiatric illness: a psychotic onset but an unusual one, symptomatic treatments that do not behave as expected, severe illness but often unremarkable structural brain MRI, yet with substantial recovery often possible.