Christina Applegate has revealed she was misdiagnosed with multiple sclerosis more than five years after being told she had the chronic condition.
The 54-year-old actor shared the news during a double episode of her podcast, MeSsy, which she co-hosts with Jamie-Lynn Sigler. Applegate said she had taken a break from the programme to process the discovery.
She said the issue came to light after her doctor decided to stop an infusion treatment and monitor how her B cells responded. When the cell count did not change, doctors began investigating her diagnosis and eventually told her she had never had MS.
“She came into my room and said, ‘Congratulations, you don’t have MS,’” Applegate said. “I was, like, not happy at all. Everybody else was so happy.”
Multiple sclerosis occurs when the immune system attacks the central nervous system. Symptoms and the progression of the disease can vary, and there is no single test that confirms the condition.
Dr Marwa Kaisey, an associate professor in the neurology department at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, said on the podcast that almost one in five people diagnosed with MS did not actually have it. She described misdiagnosis as fairly common because of the absence of one definitive test.
Applegate said she had undergone tests including a spinal tap and MRI scans when she was first diagnosed, with lesions identified on her brain. She continues to experience debilitating symptoms affecting her mobility and daily life, despite the new diagnosis.
“You don’t get misdiagnosed and then all of the sudden I’m better,” she said. “If anything, I’ve gotten worse. So I’m back at square one where I don’t know what’s going on with me.”
Applegate said her doctors would begin investigating what had happened since 2021 the following week. She has previously described numbness, tingling in her limbs and feeling off balance, and said she was unable to walk without a cane.
She used a wheelchair while filming the Netflix series Dead To Me, with changes made to the script to accommodate her symptoms. Applegate said in 2023 that her condition might lead her to stop acting on camera, and she now has physiotherapy three times a week.
After publicly discussing her MS diagnosis, Applegate became an outspoken advocate for people living with the condition. She said the discovery that she had been misdiagnosed left her feeling “like I let everybody down” and described the situation as “very unnerving” and “really confusing”.
