PANDAS/PITAND exacerbations

[TriangleNC]

My child was recently diagnosed with Pandas by Dr. L and is taking augmentin for treatment. I wanted to draw on everyone's experiences on this forum to find out if when your child is not sick with any kind of bacterial or viral infection, can stress, anxiety related to a situation, or just being tired be a trigger for a pandas exacerbation? Thank you for any advice!

[Fixit]

My child was recently diagnosed with Pandas by Dr. L and is taking augmentin for treatment. I wanted to draw on everyone's experiences on this forum to find out if when your child is not sick with any kind of bacterial or viral infection, can stress, anxiety related to a situation, or just being tired be a trigger for a pandas exacerbation? Thank you for any advice!

 

yes to all of the above...

my ds is usually less sever in moring...worse as he gets tired or worked up...

but we have not yet completely come out from this onset 1 1/2years ago

[KaraM]

I would say yes to all. On the other hand, my non- PANDAS child also gets a bit out of hand when he's tire, hungry, getting sick, stressed, etc. I'm finding as my child gets better (we are now between 95% and 100%), it's sometimes hard to tell what is just develomentally normal and PANDAS (I'm mostly referring to anger, emotional swings, since that was a big issue for us). But I also see an uptick in "questioning" OCD during these times - clearly PANDAS to me.

 

My child was recently diagnosed with Pandas by Dr. L and is taking augmentin for treatment. I wanted to draw on everyone's experiences on this forum to find out if when your child is not sick with any kind of bacterial or viral infection, can stress, anxiety related to a situation, or just being tired be a trigger for a pandas exacerbation? Thank you for any advice!

Edited October 22, 2010 by KaraM

[SarahJane]

Yes, but I agree that it's likely normal for kids (& adults) to behave differently when stressed, tired, hungry, etc.... I don't know that ds acts any worse than others unless maybe age regression makes it seem worse (or is it immaturity...hard to know).

 

Remember the immune system is activated by inital exposure, so even if they're not "sick", it's hard to know when the immune system is fighting an invader. The antibodies can be there attacking the basal ganglia even tho' all the tests for infection are negative or maybe they just got a shot/vaccine or a virus is present. The immune system "powers up" so to speak to check the invader & goes thru the "files" to see how to fight it or if it even can in case it's a virus.

 

I'm gonna watch our Magic School Bus episode "Inside Ralphie" again...we have the book too. (I think we have almost all the MSB books!) It has a great explanation of the immune system. Gives me the idea to use MSB web resources when I go to explain this more to ds(6). He'll be able to relate to Ralphie for sure.

[thereishope]

Welcome. I agree with everyone that YES other things can worsen PANDAS symptoms even when an infection is not present. This would especially be the case if your child is still not fully recovered. Hopefully, once remission is achieved, things like excitement, anxiety, etc won't be such an issue. What I'm saying that it may not always be that way.

 

My child was recently diagnosed with Pandas by Dr. L and is taking augmentin for treatment. I wanted to draw on everyone's experiences on this forum to find out if when your child is not sick with any kind of bacterial or viral infection, can stress, anxiety related to a situation, or just being tired be a trigger for a pandas exacerbation? Thank you for any advice!