An unknown disease? Mysterious brain symptoms baffle doctors

Doctors in Canada are concerned they may be dealing with a previously unknown brain disease after a number of cases involving memory loss, hallucinations and muscle atrophy.

Politicians in the province of New Brunswick have been clamoring for answers, but with so few cases, experts say there are far more questions than answers and have urged the public not to panic. For more than a year, public health officials have been following a "cluster" of 43 cases of suspected neurological disease in the province with no known cause.

Residents first learned of the investigation last week after a note from the province's public health agency urged doctors to look for symptoms similar to Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease - a rare, fatal brain disease caused by malformed protein known as prions.

A number of symptoms including memory loss, vision problems and abnormal movements caused alarm among experts. Despite the initial similarities, the screening found no similarities to Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

Now a team of researchers is trying to determine whether they are dealing with a previously unknown neurological syndrome, or a series of known diseases.

Experts say patients initially complained of unexplained pain, spasms and behavioral changes — all symptoms that could easily be diagnosed as anxiety or depression. But at 18 to 36 months they began to develop memory decline, muscle wasting, falls and uncontrollable movements. A number of patients also began to experience frightening hallucinations, including the feeling of insects crawling on the skin.

Health officials have refused to reveal the exact locations of the cases.

"We don't know what causes it. At this time we just have more patients showing up to have this syndrome," said Dr. Alier Marrero, the neurologist leading the New Brunswick investigation.