Jump to content
ACN Latitudes Forums

Can a child have PANDAS without OCD?


Recommended Posts

My child had a sudden onset of severe vocal tics about 6 weeks ago after he was sick (no strep test was done). He has always had a slightly obsessive personality & that hasn't changed or gotten any worse. The sudden & severe tics are his main symptom. Does anyone out there have a PANDAS child who has tics, but not OCD? Did anyone start out w/ tics & then OCD showed up later?

 

Stacy

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We first noticed the ticcing before we realized the weird behaviors were OCD.  We thought it was just weird games or our ds amusing himself. Then the tics became worse and we realized that the unrelenting behaviors were OCD. We found PANDAS, but the tics and OCD got much worse and were joined by extreme anxiety and hyperactivity before we started treating with abx. I think every child presents differently. Every child has a different 'perfect storm' that is their trigger.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi,

My son presented with mostly tics and I really didn't notice any other symptoms until after he was diagnosed and then began to think back about the fact that he had separation anxiety or tantrums. He never had much ocd. I just chalked all of that up to him being a kid . The only thing out of the ordinary (i thought) was the vocal and motor tics.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

yes - you can have just tics. Swedo's original paper/study written on pandas contained a group that were tics only. that group did not have as high a rate of a response to treatment, but many did respond (and her number were somewhat off because of very small sample groups).

 

 

My nephew had tics only for years (was dx'd with ADD and tourettes) and years later when I told them about pandas (because of my research for my son) he got IVIG - and responded well to it. He also had some sleep issues that disappeared - which was another pandas symptoms (although they didn't know it).

 

Does you child have any night time problems - bedwetting? insomnia? nightmares? separation anxiety? extreme irritability? annoyed or disgusted by something that is not annoying or disgusting to others? new fears? a decline isn school or ability to pay attention? all of these are symptoms too.

 

And OCD - can take on many forms. Basically almost any ODD behavior (or avoidance) can be OCD in kids, it hard to tell what is "normal" phase for a kid and what is OCD. My child had it for months before I knew it was OCD. Just a kid going through a phase - is what i thought.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

Does you child have any night time problems - bedwetting? insomnia? nightmares? separation anxiety? extreme irritability? annoyed or disgusted by something that is not annoying or disgusting to others? new fears? a decline isn school or ability to pay attention? all of these are symptoms too.

 

And OCD - can take on many forms. Basically almost any ODD behavior (or avoidance) can be OCD in kids, it hard to tell what is "normal" phase for a kid and what is OCD. My child had it for months before I knew it was OCD. Just a kid going through a phase - is what i thought.

 

My son has a few of these things to a certain extent, including some little things that could possibly be considered OCD behavior, but these are things that just appear to be part of his personality, meaning they didn't happen suddenly overnight like the tics did.

 

Stacy

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Starlygirl....

 

Regardless of what you may read or here....the answer is an absolute YES! I have a ticcer only PANDAS child. He develpoed sudden onset multiple motor tics and stuttering after documented strep (the same strep that set my younger son off, too. But younger son had the works! :( ) Anyway, my older ticcer may have slipped through the cracks because he was only tics, but, because of my younger sons presentation, he was thankfully given the correct treatment and diagnosis within days of onset. His tics went from 10 to 1 in 24 hours with antibiotic treatment. He had a very dramatic response to antibiotics. He NEVER developed any kind of OCD, behavior issues, etc., however, he was kept on proph. antibiotics and had tonsils and adeniods removed. I feel his treatment halted him from progressing. Would he have developed OCD eventually? No way of ever telling. He did wax and wane with tics (mildly...never like with strep)for over 4 years after onset with exposure,illness and allergies.... but, he has become symptom free for the past two years, even with illness! (which I attribute to staying strep free, TIME, and puberty) He is doing fantastic! :wub:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Starlygirl,

 

Yes, my DS 6 has been sick since 1/11 and was diagnosed 9/11. He has just about every symptom of PANDAS except OCD. He is currently at 85% improvement with ABX, but we are strongly considering IVIG to get him to 100%.

 

Janie

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes ticcers.

oldest ds only ticce first 9 years of life and completed remitted with standard course of abx each and every time.

That is until last onset 4/6/09 of tics, woke up that way as usual....then remembered, he did pull hair for a month prior and that would come and go with allergy seasons, said it felt like bugs crawling under his skin....terrible disgraphia ... a couple of bedwetting incidents...

Dialated eyes for the last 2 months and that goes off and on.....other that...just extreme ticcing

we are still fighting the fight for him....we get to 90-95% at times

unfortunately we are only about 50% right now....12 year molars and allergy?? he has been getting allergy shots for 1 1/2 years.

 

ds 9 ticcer only...but he has always been concrete/rigid in his thinking. was exosed to strep in december and does remit with abx, but i've noticed that everytime he is off abx for 3-4 weeks they come back.

 

ds 4 ticcer always had some sock and tag issues ....in tic remission 1 1/2 years.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...