Since then, a better understanding of the disease and its symptoms has resulted in more frequent diagnosis and treatment.Ĭritical reception for Brain on Fire has been mostly positive. Cahalan was fortunate to be correctly diagnosed because, according to Najjar's estimates, only 10 percent of people with the disease were properly diagnosed at that time.
Her research indicated that in 2009 most people with the disease were either misdiagnosed or undiagnosed. While researching, she learned that the disease had been discovered just three years before she became ill. Cahalan also discusses her symptoms prior to her hospitalization, as she had previously been diagnosed by a psychiatrist with bipolar disorder. The book also covers Cahalan's life after her recovery, including her reactions to watching videotapes of her psychotic episodes while in the hospital. Najjar used this to help diagnose Cahalan and start her road to recovery. Rather than drawing the clock face normally, the disease caused Cahalan to draw all the numbers 1 through 12 on the right face of the clock, because the right side of her brain, which regulates the left side of the body, was inflamed.
Najjar diagnosed Cahalan using a test that involved her drawing a clock, a test normally given to people suspected of having dementia or Alzheimer's disease. Souhel Najjar, began to suspect that Cahalan was suffering from an autoimmune disease. Eventually several physicians, including Dr. Her eventual diagnosis was made more difficult by various physicians misdiagnosing her with several theories such as "partying too much" and schizoaffective disorder. She woke up in a hospital with no memory of the previous month's events, during which time she had violent episodes and delusions. The book narrates Cahalan's issues with anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis and the process by which she was diagnosed with this form of encephalitis. It was first published on November 13, 2012, through Free Press in hardback, and was later reprinted in paperback by Simon & Schuster after the two companies merged. The book details Cahalan's struggle with a rare form of encephalitis and her recovery. Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness is a 2012 New York Times best-selling autobiography by New York Post writer Susannah Cahalan.
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