In 1990, the film Awakening, starring Robin Williams, based on Oliver Sacks' book Awakening, was released, describing his experiences rehabilitating catatonic patients with an experimental drug, which managed to "wake them up" but in the end they did not stay healthy for long. Now, a groundbreaking discovery at Columbia University is breathing new hope for similar treatments for serious mental illness. The protagonist of this episode is April Borrell, a woman who spent over two decades in a catatonic state – until a change in her diagnosis led to a treatment that allowed her to return to functioning. We used ChatGPT to bring this amazing story.
April, an honors student and friend, was diagnosed at the age of 21 with severe schizophrenia, after a traumatic event that caused her to enter a catatonic state, in which she is unaware of her surroundings and supposedly imprisoned in a world of hallucinations. She was referred to the Pilgrim Psychiatric Center, where Sander Marks, now director of precision psychiatry at Columbia University, first encountered her in 2000. Little did he know that their paths would cross again nearly two decades later.
In 2018, a chance encounter led to groundbreaking medical discoveries. April was also diagnosed with systemic lupus erythematosus – an autoimmune condition that causes the body to attack itself, and in her case attacked her brain. The discovery marked a turning point in her psychiatric treatment, and later undermined basic notions around mental illness and gave hope to patients sent to mental institutions.
The team, comprised of more than 70 specialists from different disciplines, began an intensive treatment regimen targeting April's autoimmune condition. The results were nothing short of miraculous: after more than 20 years of catatonia, April woke up.
Another patient, Dwayne Cruz, who was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder and lupus, is now experiencing remarkable recovery after targeted immunotherapy. These success stories led to a paradigm shift in psychiatric treatment, prompting researchers to investigate the role of autoimmune and inflammatory processes in what is diagnosed as various psychiatric syndromes.
April's awakening has far-reaching implications that go beyond her personal journey. Researchers working with New York State's mental health system have already identified about 200 patients hospitalized in mental institutions with similar autoimmune conditions—many of whom are probably not really mentally ill, but have immune diseases that paralyze their brains and can be 'awakened' through medical treatment.
The medical community is now grappling with the potential shift in treatment of cases previously diagnosed as psychiatric, with Columbia University's SNF Center for Precision Psychiatry and Mental Health striving to unravel the genetic and autoimmune roots of psychiatric illness, offering tailored treatments to patients previously considered untreatable.
Wrong? We'll fix it! If you find a mistake in the article, please share with us