You may have heard about an unexplained brain disease terrifying Atlantic Canada. Well, it might not be real.
What happened: A new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) posits that an alleged neurological disease originating from New Brunswick is not a new illness and that patients diagnosed with it are actually suffering from well-known diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.
- Though the study assessed only 25 of the 222 patients diagnosed by Dr. Alier Marrero, the neurologist who first identified the “disease,” the study authors were confident enough to say they were nearly 100% certain there is no new illness.
Catch-up: Rumblings of the mystery brain illness spread in 2021 after New Brunswick’s health authority had reportedly spent over a year tracking a cluster of patients, mostly diagnosed by Marrero, suffering from unexplained symptoms, including cognitive decline, muscle spasms, and hallucinations.
- Marrero insisted symptoms were linked to a new disease that potentially stemmed from overexposure to glyphosate, a weed killer used abundantly in New Brunswick.
- In 2022, a provincial oversight committee concluded that there was no new illness. However, pressure resulted in a new probe this year, with results expected this month.
Why it matters: If the JAMA study is to be believed, the perpetuation of this fake disease is symptomatic of a larger problem in Canadian medicine: growing mistrust in health authorities following the pandemic paired with rampant misinformation.—QH