Could this be PANDAS or TS.....child with coughing tic and anxiety iss

[tylermom]

My niece is 9 years old and has been having a coughing tic for about 8 months. Both my ds's have tics. My oldest is almost 11 and he started having eye blinking and head jerking tics at 18 months old and was dx'd with tourette's at 2 1/2 years old. My youngest ds started having tics at 4. both of my boys have mild tics and i think that both of them could have PANDAS. my oldest had eye blink tics a few month ago and was put on antibiotics after having a mole removed just for precaution 1 day after being on the antibiotics the tic went away and he has been tic free for 3 months. we have a family history of tics my dad has a throat clearing tic, cough tic and picks a spot on his forehead all the time. i also had some tics when i was little. so for my niece to have a coughing tic is not really a huge surprise since it runs in our family. however, her parents refuse to believe that its a tic. her pedi dx'd her with asthma and she was on breathing treatments, inhaler, cough med and the cough did not get any better. in fact it doesn't even really sound like an actual cough it's more like a sound that just resembles a cough and she puts her hand in front of her mouth so it looks like she's covering her mouth. she has now started going to an allergy/asthma dr. who ran allergy testing on her last week. she was not allergic to anything. he also did sinus and chest x-rays on her and everything came out clear. she did faint during the allergy testing and the dr. was called in to see if she was ok. he noticed that her hands were sweaty and he said he thought it was anxiety. she also has panic attacks all the time where she feels like she can't breath. the dr. said he though this was anxiety. the dr. told them to not give her anymore breathing treatments or asthma meds because he said he did not feel this is what she needs. my brother and sister in law are still giving her the asthma meds and breathing treatments because they refuse to believe that this is a tic. several family members have told them this sounds like a tic and they refuse to believe it. today they took her back to the allergy dr. and he told my brother that he thinks it could be a tic but that he wants to rule out reflux. he also gave her one last cough med and if this doesn't work then he wants to see her back in 2 weeks and wants to go down her throat to see if it's reflux. i'm wondering if it could be PANDAS or TS. her and her brother have strep all the time. her brother had kawaski disease 3 years ago and from what i've read that can be caused from strep. she's also having weird thoughts. a few months ago she was having obessive thoughts about killing her mother with a gun. she told her mom that she couldn't quit thinking about how she wanted to shoot her mom in the head with a gun. she told her mom "i love you mom and really don't want to kill you but i can't keep thinking in my mind how i want to shoot you in the head with a gun." she also was apparently having thoughts of doing this to other people. she also was having thoughts about wanting to have sex with a kid in her class. she's only 9 and knows way too much for her age. her home life is not that great either. her parents fight all the time and cuss each other out. they cuss at her and her brother. it's a very chaotic home. she's constantly nervous and very hyper. her teacher calls her parents all the time because the teacher says her cough is disruptive to the class. also, the kids at her school are making fun of her because of her chronic cough. this is the first year (3rd grade) that she is saying that she hates school. i homeschool my children and she is always telling them how lucky they are for being homeschooled. i feel so sorry for her.

 

she was at my house yesterday and i think she coughed none stop for the 2 1/2 hours she was here. the cough also seems to get worse when she's excited. christmas eve was horrible for her she coughed nonstop and was saying she couldn't breath and having panic attacks. let me know if this sounds like PANDAS or TS. i'm hoping her dr. will get to the root of this soon to give this poor child some relief.

[3boysmom]

Oh my gosh...I think you are totally onto something! Constant strep? Kawasaki's? I hope the doctor they are seeing has heard of PANDAS, or sadly it won't get mentioned. Totally worth investigating further! Good luck getting the in-laws to listen to you. You are a very caring Aunt and your neice is lucky to have you in her corner.

 

Linda

[Phasmid]

What a sad situation. This sounds more like generalized anxiety disorder and possible PANDAS, than asthma. If you can somehow suggest that the "tic" may be related to something treatable, such as PANDAS, rather than TS/tics, which seem an untreatable disorder, she may be more open. Print and give to her as much literature on PANDAS as you can, so she can see that tics can be part of the PANDAS set of symptoms. Maybe you could help her find a doc who treats PANDAS and go with her. Anxiety can be a huge issue in PANDAS. But the home situation could very well cause that too. Denial is a common emotion to have at the start with all this. I think we all probably started there, if the initial diagnosis was Tourettes. I was there for sure. The very unwanted thoughts are part of PANDAS as well. I would say, although her home life could certainly be a root cause of her emotional troubles, the history of strep is a big red flag. The physician may not know about PANDAS. I would ask/suggest this to him/her up front about this. What state are you in?

 

 

[Phasmid]

http://www.drgreene.com/azguide/tourette-syndrome

 

In this popular web doc's article, TS and PANDAS can be "one in the same." Not everyone agrees with this. It may help to show this to your SIL so she can move beyond the fear and get going on trying to find help for her child.