Christina Applegate says she was misdiagnosed with MS five years after diagnosis

Christina Applegate, the star of Dead to Me and Anchorman, says she never had multiple sclerosis (MS), more than five years after announcing her diagnosis. The actress, 54, shared the news in a two-part episode of her podcast MeSsy, released on Tuesday, and said she is "back at square one" because her symptoms have not gone away.

"You don't get misdiagnosed and then all of the sudden I'm better," Applegate said, as reported by BBC News. "If anything, I've gotten worse."

How the misdiagnosis came to light

Applegate said that "all of a sudden, a few years ago", her doctor suggested stopping her MS infusion treatment to see how her body reacted. Her B-cell count neither rose nor fell once the treatment stopped, which began "kind of a study into my diagnosis", she said, according to CBS News. Doctors eventually concluded she did not have the disease.

"She came into my room and said, 'Congratulations, you don't have MS,'" Applegate recalled. "I was, like, not happy at all. Everybody else was so happy."

She had taken a break from the podcast, which she co-hosts with The Sopranos actress Jamie-Lynn Sigler, who has MS, to process the news. A fresh investigation into what is causing her daily symptoms begins next week, she said.

Timeline

Why MS is hard to diagnose

Dr Marwa Kaisey, an associate professor of neurology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, told the podcast that almost one in five people told they have MS "didn't actually have it". There is no single test for the disease, she explained: "It's not like we have something like a pregnancy test that says 'yes, you have it. No, you don't.' It's a list of criteria."

MS is a condition in which the immune system attacks the central nervous system. Symptoms vary from person to person and can include numbness, problems with balance and walking, and tingling in the limbs, all of which Applegate has described.

Applegate, who became one of the best-known advocates for people with MS after her diagnosis, said the news left her feeling "like I let everybody down". She still has physical therapy three times a week. "It's very unnerving and it's really confusing for me," she said.

Anyone in Pakistan worried about similar symptoms should see a neurologist; our directory lists hospitals by city, including major teaching hospitals with neurology departments.