Lupus and the Brain
My wife has been having a lot of problems lately remembering things and has been acting a little odd. This isn’t a new symptom of her lupus, but it is one that tends to vary in severity. Sometimes people refer to this as lupus fog, and it can also be related to fibromyalgia, but I feel like what has been happening lately is a bit more severe.
I found this on the Lupus International website:
NEUROCOGNITIVE DYSFUNCTION is also a common and overlooked clinical feature of lupus estimated to occur in up to 80% of affected individuals. The diversity of cognitive impairments parallels the considerable variability of the disease process. Deficits in learning and/or memory, reasoning, verbal fluency, motor function, basic attention, and information processing speed are the most consistently described.
This is precisely the kind of things my wife’s been dealing with for years, although never all of them at once.
In general, objective tests of cognitive performance are unrelated to perceived stress, depression, and anxiety, suggesting that cognitive impairment may be a primary disease manifestation consistent with other immunemediated disease with neurologic involvement (e.g., acquired immune deficiency syndrome and multiple sclerosis). Alternatively, the relationship between depression and cognitive performance may be determined by more subtle aspects of lupus, including sleep disturbance, fatigue, and pain as has been suggested in studies of individuals with multiple sclerosis.
We have often wondered if it was just stress or if things were just too busy, but there have been many times where things weren’t that stressful or busy, and my wife still had cognitive issues.
I remember Jenny’s rheumatologist talking about how vasculitis can affect cognitive function by causing small lesions in the brain. I was reading about vasculitis on the Lupus Foundation of America website, and I think that this might be the reason for much of what has been going on for the last couple of months.
We are going to consult with Jenny’s lupus specialist and see what needs to be done. Has anyone else dealt with this?
Jeff,
I have been going through a longer than usual issue with my cognitive problems. My cognitive problems would surface for a while then fade off for a while. However, the cognitive issues have been constant now going on 6mos now. My concentration is ok one day, the next I have 0% concentration. On an average day, I will ask my son 5-6 times, what time he has to work.I don’t remember phone calls, most of the time I can’t recall what I did after I woke up. Maybe your wife can tell you about what Im about to explain, Some days I can tell, my thought process is off, its hard to explain, I know not to drive anywhere or do anything that might cause me harm. Now, I can’t tell when my cognitive issues are haywire. I don’t think it is stress related, but I don’t know what it is. Something else, I have had more migraines more frequently than usual.
I have had to find a new Dr, which I don’t like to do, however my former Dr in the 5yrs I went to her she never ordered MRI’s, eeg’s, but I was put on Enbrel & Methotrexate.
Jeff, feel free to contact me anytime, I may not have all the answers, but I go through hell & back on a regular basis with Lupus.
Nicole
I have had different variations of effects ranging from mild to severe. My mildest symptoms are the same as you noted, each differing from day to day. The most severe was about 10 years ago when I went through a period of about a month with symptoms such as hallucinations, delusions, periodic catatonic states, and severe depression. I was hospitalized during this time and treated with IV steroids for my active Lupus along with trials of psychiatric medicines in an attempt to treat the psychosis. I have never been formally diagnosed as to why these things happened, only guesses have come up such as CNS Lupus or a side effect of long term prednisone use.
The important thing is for Lupus patients and family members/caregivers to be aware of all changes in their mental state and be sure to discuss them and any other concerns with a doctor.
I have hadproblems with my head going num.And my mind just racing that i couldnt go to sleep cause my brain would nt shut off. I get like flar ups where i cant walk good or think good.Is there anyone out there like this please let me know