This secret could open up a cure for mental disorders for similar patients, the Daily Mail reported on June 2.
In 1995, April Burrell, then 21 years old, experienced a traumatic event while studying accounting at a university in Maryland (USA) and suffered from severe schizophrenia.
She was no longer able to communicate, bathe or care for herself, nor recognize her relatives, and had to be admitted to a mental hospital in New York.
Until one day 20 years later, a team of doctors revived her by discovering the secret cause of her illness.
A woman who suffered from a mental disorder for 20 years has regained consciousness after doctors discovered the surprising cause of her illness.
Strange coincidence
Professor Sander Markx, Head of Precision Psychiatry at Columbia University (USA), is one of the experts who treated April.
It was a strange coincidence, he recalled that he met April when he was a medical student, and the image of this patient was always engraved in his mind.
"She just stood there staring. She didn't shower, she didn't go out, she didn't smile. And the nurses had to physically manipulate her," said Professor Markx.
Nearly two decades later, Professor Markx met April again after one of his students also went to the same mental hospital and said he had met the woman.
Shocked that the patient had shown no improvement after 20 years, the professor spoke to the patient's family and assembled a team of experts to conduct a full analysis of her condition.
The secret is revealed
They found signs of lupus in her blood. This disease occurs more often in women than men.
It is not known whether the previous traumatic event was related to lupus or was just coincidental.
Brain scans showed signs that the immune system was attacking the patient's temporal lobe, which is vital for processing information and emotions as well as language.
This case is very unusual because normally lupus attacks areas such as the skin, joints, kidneys and heart but not the brain, according to the Daily Mail.
And here, the disease only attacks the brain, so there are no other obvious symptoms to recognize the disease.
Cause found, disease can be treated
Doctor examines patient
The process was long and arduous. April needed immunotherapy, using powerful drugs to get her immune system working again.
This treatment will take a year, as between courses of medication, a month off is required to allow the immune system to recover.
Tests that ask patients to draw clock faces — to measure cognitive ability — have shown promise.
Before treatment, April's drawings resembled those of an amnesiac - meaningless scribbles.
But gradually over the next several months, she started drawing half a clock face, then a nearly perfect clock face.
After a year of treatment, April woke up in 2020 and reunited with her family in 2021.
April's brother, Guy Burrell, recalled: It was like she was a completely new person. She recognised all of us, remembered a lot of things from when she was a child.
Not only is April's recovery a joy for one family, it could also bring hope to many other similar patients.
Researchers working with New York state's mental health system have identified about 200 patients with autoimmune diseases, some of whom have been treated for years, who could benefit from the discovery.
Similar research is also being conducted in the UK and Germany, according to the Daily Mail.
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