PANDAS presentation

[KaraM]

Hi,

 

I am going to try to educate the school nurses, adjustment counselors, teachers and PTOs at the elementary schools in our city. The head nurse invited me to their professional development meeting on May 12. I want to put together a one or two page summary - bullet points to go over with them, plus documents that go into more detail that they can keep on file if they want to. (I also want to make an electonic copy of this so I can easily send it to anyone else that may find it useful). My hope is that if they have a child where they notice these symptoms or if a parent informs them their child is experiencing OCD/Tics, they can pass this information on to the parent and encourage them to explore PANDAS as a possiblity. I also want to inlcude info on accomodations school personnel can make to support a child with OCD/Tics/Tourettes.

 

I'm thinking I will include a brief description, the symptoms, resources (like this site, OCDandParenting) other PANDAS websites (like PANDASResourceNetwork, PANDASFoundation), etc. I will also mention PITAND.

 

Has anyone already done something like this? If yes, would you mind sharing what you did? I'd rather not re-create the wheel if I don't have to. If you have something you can send, please email me at karamclaughlin@comcast.net. Also, if anyone has any suggestions on what to include above and beyond what I mentioned, please let me know.

 

Thanks,

Kara

Edited May 7, 2010 by KaraM

[sf_mom]

I've always found this article the easiest to understand. I did something similar for my friend's son school. I found most people (including Dr.'s) don't read the material. My recommendation is to keep it simple no matter what you do.

 

How Does Strep Lead to Psychiatric Symptoms?

 

The discovery of PANDAS came through observing the reactions of patients. Initially, Swedo's team noticed a group of patients who were ill with infections and then suddenly developed dramatic psychiatric symptoms. At first, they were not sure streptococcus was the culprit but research soon isolated the strep antibodies as an important focus of interest.

 

PANDAS is controversial in medical circles with some physicians questioning whether such extreme psychiatric symptoms can be triggered by strep antibodies. However, according to Dr. Swedo, there is little doubt that the body's efforts to fight the strep bacteria set off a chain of events leading to PANDAS symptoms. "The science is clear now," Swedo asserts. "We not only have a direct relationship between the anti-strep antibodies and the anti-neuronal antibodies, but also have demonstrated that the antibodies interact with receptors in the brain that could produce the symptoms observed."

 

Normally when the strep bacteria enter the body, they defend themselves by mimicking healthy cells and elude detection by the immune system. Using the stealth strategy, the strep bacteria create an infection. In response, the body naturally creates antibodies - cellular components designed to find the bacteria, bind with them and direct the immune system to destroy the bacteria. When this happens as designed, the antibodies find the strep bacteria and the immune system wins the battle.

 

However, antibodies are not terribly discriminating and sometimes cannot tell a streptococcus bacterium apart from a healthy cell. In some children, these antibodies pass into the brain and look for something to connect with. In PANDAS, the strep antibodies are unable to discriminate between strep and healthy brain cells. However, the union of strep antibody and neural tissue is not a match made in heaven. Recent research, reported last fall by University of Oklahoma researcher, Madeleine Cunningham, suggests that the antibodies connect with parts of the brain which regulate repetitive behaviors and movement, such as compulsions and tics. According to Dr. Swedo, such autoimmune actions may have the direct result of producing obsessions, compulsions and tics; and in addition, they might indirectly offset the critical balance of brain chemistry which regulates mood and emotion.

 

Compounding the problem is the durability of strep antibodies. They can remain on the prowl for a hook up weeks after the strep is gone. Subsequent infections or even colds can stimulate the immune system to produce more of the same kind of antibodies which the triggered the original symptoms. PANDAS children can then abruptly re-experience the same symptoms after a symptom-free span of time. Dr. Swedo explained, "We see a saw-toothed pattern of symptoms, extreme outbursts of behaviors for a brief period in response to the infections and then the child may be relatively symptom-free for a period of time."

 

http://www.christianpost.com/blogs/health/...c-09/index.html

[Buster]

Here's one I put together where I tried to keep it simple... http://pandasdad.home.comcast.net/what%20is%20pandas.pdf

 

I also strongly recommend the school nurse news article: http://www.schoolnursenews.org/BackIssues/.../pandas0903.pdf

 

 

Somewhere around here I have a more technical presentation with all the references and documentation as per the PANDAS fact sheet. But I think the above ones are effective.

 

See if this helps.

 

Buster

 

 

Hi,

 

I am going to try to educate the school nurses, adjustment counselors, teachers and PTOs at the elementary schools in our city. The head nurse invited me to their professional development meeting on May 12. I want to put together a one or two page summary - bullet points to go over with them, plus documents that go into more detail that they can keep on file if they want to. (I also want to make an electonic copy of this so I can easily send it to anyone else that may find it useful). My hope is that if they have a child where they notice these symptoms or if a parent informs them their child is experiencing OCD/Tics, they can pass this information on to the parent and encourage them to explore PANDAS as a possiblity. I also want to inlcude info on accomodations school personnel can make to support a child with OCD/Tics/Tourettes.

 

I'm thinking I will include a brief description, the symptoms, resources (like this site, OCDandParenting) other PANDAS websites (like PANDASResourceNetwork, PANDASFoundation), etc. I will also mention PITAND.

 

Has anyone already done something like this? If yes, would you mind sharing what you did? I'd rather not re-create the wheel if I don't have to. If you have something you can send, please email me at karamclaughlin@comcast.net. Also, if anyone has any suggestions on what to include above and beyond what I mentioned, please let me know.

 

Thanks,

Kara

[kimballot]

Thanks, Buster - any thoughts of doing that with a simple voicover so folks could watch it from their computers? I'd love to send that link to the teachers at my son's school, but I think it needs just a little explanaiton of the slides, and I am not looking to do a presenation to the class right now.