If OCD is only symptom, is it PANDAS?

[BeeRae22]

When my dd's exacerbation started, and continued, her symptoms were so severe and numerous that her PANS diagnosis didnt leave much room for doubt. But what if OCD/anxiety were the only symptom?

 

Ds is having (2nd?) "flare" of more severe OCD symptoms that have escalated with illness. Would someone with "garden variety OCD" have worsened symptoms with illness and improve with better health, or is that autoimmune talking?

 

Is there such thing as "garden variety OCD"?

[MomWithOCDSon]

For more than 6 years, my DS's ONLY PANDAs behavior was OCD and anxiety; it wasn't until it went untreated for all that time that his third major exacerbation brought tics, urinary frequency, trouble sleeping, major emotional lability, etc. to the table.

 

How do I know it was PANDAs rather than "garden variety OCD"? Because within 48 hours of dosing antibiotics, he was a different kid -- in a good way -- for the first time in months. That was a result months -- nay, years -- of neither therapy nor psych drugs had managed to accomplish.

 

Personally, I don't think there is any such thing as "garden variety OCD," except to the extent that the OCD behaviors born of a physical illness (PANDAs/PANs) can become habitual or entrenched, the longer the underlying illness goes untreated. It's like anyone else coping with a brain on fire . . . you develop ways of doing things, ways of addressing the world, that help you deal; and then, even once the brain storm has subsided, it's like asking a person to learn to walk again, to just ditch those OCD behaviors they've been doing for months or even years.