" Wickel J, Chung HY, Konen FF, Rössling R, Bertolini A, Kraft A, Siebenbrodt K, Bittner S, Juranek A, Brokbals M, Räuber S, Klausewitz J, Pfeffer LK, Scherag A, Menge T, Finke A, Doppler K, Urbanek Ch, Bien CG, Seifert-Held T , Hoffmann F, Wandlinger KP, Tauber SC, Süße M , Lewerenz J, Madlener M, Rostasy K, Prüss H, Sühs KW, Kümpfel T, Thaler FS, Leypoldt F, Geis Ch ; GENERATE study group
Objectives: The aim of this study was to analyze changes in hospital incidence cases and disease severity of autoantibody-associated autoimmune encephalitis (AE) during the COVID-19 pandemic compared with the prepandemic period. Methods: A retrospective multicenter study analyzed data from 24 centers within the German Network for Research on Autoimmune Encephalitis (GENERATE). Patients with a new diagnosis of definite antibody-positive autoimmune encephalitis from 2017 to 2022 were included and divided into prepandemic (2017-2019) and pandemic (2020-2022) periods. Results: Among 392 patients, 227 were diagnosed before and 165 during the pandemic (mean 9.5 vs 6.9 per site, p = 0.04). A reduction was observed in cases with antibodies to neuronal surface antigens (174 vs 122 cases; mean 7.3 vs 5.1 per site, p = 0.02), while cases with antibodies against intracellular antigens remained stable (p = 0.40). No differences were observed in disease severity, age, or sex distribution between periods. Discussion: This study provides clinical data on antibody-positive AE before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings do not support the hypothesis that SARS-CoV-2 infection triggers autoantibody-associated AE or increases disease severity.Neurol Neuroimmunol Neuroinflamm. 2026 May;13(3):e200555.
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