image by: HWN

HWN Suggests

When a Sore Throat Attacks the Brain

The formal introduction of what would become known as PANS came from Susan Swedo, a National Institutes of Health researcher, in 1998. Back then, Swedo called it PANDAS (“pediatric autoimmune neuropsychiatric disorders associated with streptococcal infections”) because the symptoms were tied only to strep throat. Doctors at Stanford and the NIH renamed it PANS in 2014 after they discovered that infections and viruses other than strep — Epstein-Barr, COVID, mycoplasma, Lyme, and influenza among them — can bring about a similar neurological response. (In one recent survey of 103 patients referred to a UCLA PANS clinic, only 3 percent of patients’ illness stemmed from strep and 77 percent traced…

read full article

Featured

 Understanding PANS, a Frightening Condition That Can Turn Children Inexplicably Violent

PANS is thought to be an inflammatory condition that results when an infection or some other invasive trigger spurs the body to turn on itself and attack structures in the brain. For years, scientists had focused on a single infection — group A streptococcal disease — that produced antibodies that attacked the part of the forebrain involved in forming habits, resulting in OCD. Today, the paradigm has widened into a much bigger idea that expands our understanding of psychiatric disease: A whole host of infections and other unknown triggers lead to the production of antibodies and immune cells that can cross into the brain.

Articles of Interest

PANS in Adults: Can It Happen and What Are the Symptoms?

Sudden anxiety, OCD, or behavioral changes without explanation? Some patients experience abrupt neuropsychiatric symptoms that do not follow a typical pattern. PANS in adults is not commonly recognized—but similar symptom patterns may occur beyond childhood, particularly when symptoms are sudden, severe, and linked to infection or immune dysfunction.

Can an Infection Trigger OCD?

Proposed link between infections and psychiatric disorders is still under review but gaining more recognition, resources among scientists.

Can You Catch Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder?

There are researchers who believe that some of this disturbing cacophony -- specifically a subset found only in children -- is caused by something familiar and common. They call it Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated With Streptococcal Infection, or, because every disease needs an acronym, Pandas. And they are certain it is brought on by strep throat -- or more specifically, by the antibodies created to fight strep throat.

Episode 147: PANS & PANDAS

PANS/PANDAS is the hypothesis that there are certain types of obsessive compulsive symptoms, tic symptoms or restrictive eating symptoms that are caused by an infection and the immune response to an infection. At this point, by clinical criteria, PANDAS and PANS can only be diagnosed in children, and much of the focus on these diagnoses have been on children. Dr. Williams says that it may be possible that this diagnosis might extend to adults. Dr. Williams and Dr. O’Dor have heard of isolated reports of young adults (around ages 18-20) reporting symptoms that resemble PANDAS/PANS, but are not aware of individuals over the age of thirty years developing new onset obsessive compulsive symptoms, movement symptoms, or restrictive eating symptoms related to recent infection.

Infections May Raise The Risk Of Mental Illness In Children

Researchers have traced a connection between some infections and mental illnesses like schizophrenia, depression and bipolar disorder. New research from Denmark bolsters that connection. The study, published Thursday in JAMA Psychiatry, shows that a wide variety of infections, even common ones like bronchitis, are linked to a higher risk of many mental illnesses in children and adolescents. The findings support the idea that infections affect mental health, possibly by influencing the immune system.

PANDAS and PANS: No easy answers for severe disorders in children

Brandon’s was a “classic” case of PANDAS, first noted almost 20 years ago and named with the acronym for pediatric autoimmune neuropsychiatric disorders associated with streptococcal infection. National Institute for Mental Health researcher Susan Swedo and her team reported in an April 2004 article in the journal Pediatrics that “a decade of observations and research” found the new type of pediatric OCD that is triggered by antibodies to group A strep bacteria.

Pans/Pandas – A Much-Misdiagnosed Condition in the UK

Pans/Pandas is an acronym for Paediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococcal Infections. There are other names for this condition including ‘basal ganglia encephalitis.’ The nomenclature can be confusing. But what you need to know is that they all mean one thing – infection driven-autoimmune brain inflammation.

Pediatric Acute-Onset Neuropsychiatric Syndrome: Current Perspectives

Pediatric acute-onset neuropsychiatric syndrome (PANS) features a heterogeneous constellation of acute obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), eating restriction, cognitive, behavioral and/or affective symptoms, often followed by a chronic course with cognitive deterioration. An immune-mediated etiology is advocated in which the CNS is hit by different pathogen-driven (auto)immune responses

Sudden Onset of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and Other Mental Health Conditions in Children: An Overview of PANS/PANDAS

Pediatric Acute-onset Neuropsychiatric Syndrome (PANS) and Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococcal Infections (PANDAS) are conditions that many health-care providers are unfamiliar with, yet they can have profound implications for childhood mental health. These disorders present with abrupt-onset neuropsychiatric symptoms, often leaving families and clinicians confused and searching for answers. While conventional medicine has traditionally overlooked these conditions and their immune-related underpinnings, the tide is turning...

What is PANDAS/PANS?

For every parent of a child with an illness, especially a mental illness, there is a unique story of how and when the illness struck. But when you meet a parent of a child with PANDAS/PANS (typically a child between ages 3–14), you will hear the same panicked story over and over. A child who was happy at home and at school and was social and athletic is now walking in circles for hours, washing hands until they bleed, asking the same questions over and over and over. A child that used to be comforted by a hug is now inconsolable.

Resources

PANDAS Physicians Network

PANDAS Physicians Network maintains the industry standard PPN Guidelines for Diagnostics and Therapeutics, foster continuous education and communication within the multi-disciplinary medical community and sponsors research for developing diagnostic tests, treatment protocols and a cure for PANDAS/PANS within this generation.

PANS Australia

Advocacy and support for families at the click of a finger.

PANS PANDAS UK

PANS PANDAS UK is a charity created to raise awareness of the neuropsychiatric conditions PANS and PANDAS.

Stanford PANS program

We created our Stanford PANS program in 2012 in order to build a comprehensive program with the goal to orchestrate groundbreaking research while providing tailored care for patients and their families.