Autoimmune

What is autoimmune neuropathy?

Autoimmune diseases cause the body to mistakenly attack its own cells because it cannot distinguish between its own cells and foreign cells
Some autoimmune conditions are systemic and tend to affect the entire body, and their attacks often target peripheral nerve fibers — these include Sjögren’s syndrome, lupus, and rheumatoid arthritis
Other autoimmune conditions can specifically target the nerves — these are often triggered by recent infection and include Guillain-Barré syndrome and chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy.
Some autoimmune neuropathies like multifocal motor neuropathy affects large nerve fibers exclusively, others affect the small fibers

Autoimmune diseases are particularly difficult to diagnose, but the first step if you suspect autoimmune neuropathy is to consult a rheumatologist
They are diagnosed using combinations of symptom analysis, blood marker testing, and antibody testing
Some autoimmune conditions require tissue biopsies to diagnose
Research is constantly discovering new autoimmune conditions — if your tests come back clear, it might be worth revisiting in a few years to see if there have been any new developments

If you want to learn more, click on the links below that we used to get our information.

Here are some useful webinars and presentations about autoimmune neuropathy.

This section is empty for now, but if you come across anything interesting, please let us know!

Read personal stories about people’s experiences with autoimmune neuropathy.

This section is empty for now, but if you come across anything interesting, please let us know!

Here are some useful podcasts we have come across.