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Dr. Axe Wire · Celebrity & creator · health
Christina Applegate Says She Was Misdiagnosed With MS After 5 Years
Christina Applegate says doctors reversed her 2021 multiple sclerosis diagnosis, and a Cedars-Sinai neurologist says MS misdiagnosis is fairly common.
Fox News reported on October 24, 2026, that actress Christina Applegate says she was misdiagnosed with multiple sclerosis after five years of treatment and has not improved since the reversal.
5years of treatment
1in 5 referred patients
20+MS medications exist
Applegate shared the news on the October 20 episode of MeSsy, the podcast she co-hosts with Jamie-Lynn Sigler, and said the reversal left her in shock. She was diagnosed in 2021 after a spinal tap and MRIs of her brain and spine showed dozens of lesions. After years of infusions, her doctor paused them to monitor her B cells, immune cells involved in MS. They never changed, which prompted a review, and more scans led her doctor to tell her she did not have MS. Cedars-Sinai neurologist Dr. Marwa Kaisey, who has not treated Applegate, said on a follow-up episode that MS misdiagnosis happens fairly often: of patients who arrived at UCLA and Cedars-Sinai MS clinics already diagnosed, nearly one in five did not have the disease, some after decades and most while on MS medication.
Kaisey said no single test confirms MS the way a pregnancy test confirms pregnancy; diagnosis rests on partly subjective criteria plus MRI patterns and symptoms. She pointed to the central vein sign, small blood vessels running through the middle of lesions, now part of updated diagnostic criteria, to tell MS lesions from spots caused by conditions such as migraine. Neurologist Richard Ransohoff called it a real step forward and listed other MS mimics, including some strokes in younger people, lupus and migraine.
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It's not like we have something like a pregnancy test that says, yes, you have it, no, you don't
Applegate says she is back at square one. Ransohoff noted that some reversed cases lead to a clear alternative diagnosis, but hers has not, so her condition remains unexplained.
Dr. Axe’s Take
Applegate's case shows how much MS diagnosis still depends on pattern recognition rather than one definitive test. When labs or MRI findings stop fitting the expected pattern, a patient deserves a fresh look at an MS specialty center. I'd push for a full records review, ask whether the central vein sign was checked on the original scans, and keep pursuing the underlying cause. MS treatments can cause significant side effects, so if one isn't helping, ask your doctor to reassess it, and never change prescribed treatment on your own.
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Story summary
- Who
- Christina Applegate, 54, publicly diagnosed with MS in 2021; separately, patients referred to MS clinics at UCLA and Cedars-Sinai
- Design
- Celebrity disclosure on a podcast episode plus commentary from two neurologists, one of them citing a clinic-referral study
- Primary result
- Applegate's 2021 MS diagnosis was reversed after years of infusion treatment; her MRIs had shown around 30 lesions
- Secondary
- Nearly 1 in 5 patients referred to MS clinics with an MS diagnosis did not have the disease, many diagnosed for decades and most on MS medication
- Date
- Oct 24, 2026