Devine Cruz began hearing voices at the age of 9, and was eventually diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder. At 14, she was also diagnosed with lupus. Sander Markx began treating Devine for her lupus when she was 20. After 6 months of treatments, the voices and visions in her head stopped, and she no longer met the diagnostic criteria for schizoaffective disorder. 

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

After suffering a traumatic experience in 1995, April Burrell was hospitalized and later diagnosed with schizophrenia. Nearly 20 years later, Sander Markx, director of precision psychiatry at Columbia University, discovered that April’s immune system was overproducing antibodies that were only attacking her brain. Through an intensive six month immunotherapy treatment for April’s lupus  — where her brain would receive powerful pulses of steroids into its veins five times a month — April’s schizophrenic symptoms quickly abated until she was deemed mentally competent to be discharged from the psychiatric hospital where she had resided for two decades. 

The Case of April Burrell

Sima, R. (2023, June 1). A catatonic woman awakened after 20 years. Her story may change psychiatry. The Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2023/06/01/schizophrenia-autoimmune-lupus-psychiatry/. 



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