Mary suffered from severe delusions for decades, believing in elaborate conspiracies and isolating herself. Following chemotherapy for lymphoma, her symptoms suddenly improved. Rachel Aviv reports on a growing investigation into the connection between psychiatric disorders and autoimmune diseases, with some researchers suggesting a significant percentage of schizophrenia cases could be misdiagnosed. This highlights the potential number of individuals who need alternative treatments. Mary's daughters reflect on their struggles to help her and adapt to her transformed perspective after her recovery.
For decades, a woman named Mary suffered from consuming delusions. Long-lost professional colleagues were meddling with her life; someone was spying on her through a camera in the showerhead; her eldest daughter was conspiring against her and putting poison on her pizza.
And then, suddenly, just months after she began chemotherapy treatment for lymphoma, her symptoms of psychosis disappeared. Aviv, who has been writing about psychology in one way or another for The New Yorker for years, investigates a relatively new phenomenon.
Researchers and physicians are beginning to ask how many patients who present with what are typically considered psychiatric disorders, including schizophrenia, may actually be suffering from autoimmune conditions.
One scientist at the National Institute of Mental Health tells Aviv that the figure may be between one and five per cent of schizophrenia patients.
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