Christina Applegate reveals she was wrongly diagnosed with multiple sclerosis: ‘Not happy at all’

Christina Applegate announced Tuesday that she had been misdiagnosed with multiple sclerosis. more than five years after announcing that she had been told she had a chronic illness.

Applegate, 54, shared the news in a double episode of her podcast MeSsy, where she and co-host Jamie-Lynn Sigler discuss life with multiple sclerosis. Applegate had taken a break from podcasting in recent weeks. She said Tuesday that she took this time to process the new information.

Applegate said that “all of a sudden, a few years ago,” her doctor wanted to take her off the infusion therapy and see how her B cells responded. The cell count neither increased nor decreased after stopping treatment, which triggered “a sort of study into my diagnosis,” Applegate said. Eventually, her doctor had some surprising news: Applegate had never had multiple sclerosis.

“She came into my room and said, ‘Congratulations, you don’t have MS,'” Applegate said. “I wasn’t happy at all. Everyone was so happy.”

Multiple sclerosis, or MS, is a disease in which the immune system attacks the central nervous system. Symptoms vary from person to person, according to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, and there are several types of the disease. This disease has no known cause and its course is impossible to predict.

Dr. Marwa Kaisey, an associate professor in the department of neurology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, said on the podcast that nearly one in five people who have been told they have multiple sclerosis “don’t actually have it.” Misdiagnosis of the disease is “pretty common,” she said, because there is no single test to detect it.

Applegate said that at the time of her initial diagnosis, she underwent tests including a lumbar puncture and MRI scans. Scans showed lesions on his brain, she said.

Applegate said she continues to experience debilitating symptoms that affect her daily life and mobility.

“There’s no misdiagnosis and all of a sudden I’m better,” Applegate said. “If anything, my condition has gotten worse. So I’m back to square one where I don’t know what’s happening to me. And this is going to be an online investigation that my doctors are going to embark on just to find out what’s been happening since 2021, why did this happen?”

The investigation will begin next week, she said.

Applegate has previously described living with symptoms such as numbness, a feeling of imbalance and a tingling sensation in the limbs. She said in a 2022 interview with the New York Times that she “can’t walk without a cane.”

In the same interview, she said she used a wheelchair while filming the Netflix hit “Dead To Me,” and that the show’s storyline was adjusted to accommodate her symptoms. In 2023, Applegate said her symptoms could lead her to give up acting in front of the camera. She said Tuesday that she goes to physical therapy three times a week.

After receiving an official diagnosis of the disease, she became a vocal advocate for MS. On Tuesday, she said the misdiagnosis made her feel “like she let everyone down.”

“It’s very disturbing and really confusing to me,” Applegate said.