While the conditions are similar in their symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment, GBS and CIDP differ in their root cause, duration, and overall impact on your health.
Cause
While the exact cause of GBS and CDIP are unknown, doctors believe many cases of GBS occur after an infection like the flu or a respiratory or gastrointestinal infection. In extremely rare cases, GBS has been linked to surgery and some vaccines, such as the flu vaccine, however, research suggests the benefits of the flu vaccine far outweigh the very small risk of GBS. “In Guillain-Barré syndrome, there’s good evidence that the immune system is responding to something external, such as an infection, or potentially even something internal, such as cancer,” says Gil Wolfe, MD, SUNY distinguished professor of neurology at Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo in New York.
Less is known about what triggers the immune system to launch an attack on the myelin of peripheral nerve cells in CIDP. As with other autoimmune diseases, genetics, environmental triggers, and other factors may increase some people’s risk of developing CIDP, says Dr. Wolfe, but the exact cause is still unknown.
Condition Onset and Duration
“Guillain-Barré syndrome is a monophasic condition,” explains Richard Lewis, MD, a professor of neurology at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles, which means that it is a single bout of illness that typically gets better and doesn’t return. On the other hand, “CIDP is an ongoing illness that requires ongoing treatment,” Dr. Lewis says.
A key indicator of GBS is that it reaches peak severity in four weeks or fewer, whereas CIDP is most severe at the eight-week mark or longer.
Prognosis
While GBS symptoms typically come on rapidly, last a few weeks, and do not recur, CIDP symptoms develop slowly over several months or longer and can last indefinitely. Symptoms of CIDP can continue to progress and relapse, requiring ongoing treatment.
One reason the conditions are often conflated is that there is a type of CIDP that can initially appear to be GBS — a disorder called acute onset CIDP, explains Lewis. “Patients with acute onset CIDP look like they could have Guillain-Barré syndrome, and it’s not until eight weeks later that you realize that the disorder is ongoing,” says Lewis. “It’s not necessarily a misdiagnosis — you simply can’t diagnose CIDP at four weeks because you haven’t had enough time.” What’s positive, says Lewis, is that the treatment you may have received for what was thought to be GBS is typically also effective for CIDP.
