"Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness" is the memoir of Susannah Cahalan, a young reporter at the New York Post who mysteriously starts having seizures and hearing voices. As the weeks go Susannah enters a state where violence happens to catatonia inexplicably. After a series of outbreaks, misdiagnosis, and a long hospital stay, finally a doctor gives you a diagnosis and hope to rebuild their lives.
The film is produced by Charlize Theron, starring actress Chloë Grace Moretz and written and directed by Gerard Barrett.
Dr. Dalmau, who personally knows the Susannah Cahalan, said: "I hope the film adaptation is faithful to the facts that are so well described in the book. If so, there will be a great service to patients, families and medical personnel, improving the knowledge on the disease and perhaps increasing the interest in research, so necessary, in brain diseases".
About autoimmune encephalitis
The anti-NMDAR encephalitis is an autoimmune neurological disease that involves the neuronal NMDA receptors. In this disease, first identified by Dr. Dalmau in 2007, the body creates antibodies against NMDA receptors which are critical for normal brain function including controlling memory and behavior. The antibodies disrupt normal brain signaling and cause psychosis, severe memory problems, seizures, abnormal movements and other neurologic symptoms. With the appropriate treatment, including immunotherapy, more than 80 percent of patients significantly improve or completely recover, although the recovery process can take months to years.