How Are Autoimmune Patients Addressing Memory Loss?

People living with autoimmune disorders face a significant number of medical challenges in 2025, and even with the prospect of innovative treatments in development, controlling various symptoms remains of paramount importance. One of the most challenging aspects of autoimmune disorders such as lupus is the way that these conditions can affect the brain, sometimes resulting in memory loss.

Last year, Today‘s Sarah Jacoby chronicled the unnerving case of a Baltimore resident whose autoimmune disorder caused a host of psychological ailments, including gaps in her memory and hallucinations. As healthcare professionals learned, the cause of these issues was rooted in a case of autoimmune encephalitis.

This is not an isolated incident. The Hospital for Special Surgery, for instance, notes that the autoimmune disorder lupus can cause both a condition known as “lupus fog” and psychosis.

One path forward for patients dealing with memory loss as a result of autoimmune conditions can be found in a recent Associated Press article by Lauran Neergaard and Shelby Lum. The AP’s reporting focused on the case of one man who, as Neergaard and Lum write, “lost decades of ‘autobiographical’ memories.” It notes that clinical trials of new medication are underway to address similar issues; Neergaard and Lum also describe the ways this patient has sought to cope with losing memories of time spent with family and friends.

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Scientists are still learning more about the ways autoimmune disorders can affect the brain. But correctly diagnosing the cause of these symptoms is also vitally important; a decade ago, the Mayo Clinic noted that 35% of the patients who “responded to immunotherapy for autoimmune dementia” over a seven-year period had been “initially misdiagnosed with a neurodegenerative disorder.” Finding a correct diagnosis is crucial, but it’s only the first step in a much longer process.

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Tobias Carroll

Tobias Carroll lives and writes in New York City, and has been covering a wide variety of subjects — including (but not limited to) books, soccer and drinks — for many years. His writing has been published by the likes of the Los Angeles Times, Pitchfork, Literary Hub, Vulture, Punch, the New York Times and Men’s Journal. At InsideHook, he has…