PANDAS Documentary: My Kid Is Not Crazy
My Kid Is Not Crazy, a stirring and heartbreaking documentary on PANDAS, can be seen on DVD and Vimeo. Director Tim Sorel is a University of Florida Professor and documentary filmmaker. Inspired by chance meetings with parents who had children with PANDAS symptoms, Sorel set out on a two-and-a-half-year journey embedding with several families as they navigate a nearly impossible medical system, insurance denials and general non-acceptance of these children. Sorel also interviews the nation’s top experts in science, medicine and treatment to separate fact from fiction.
More than 30 years ago, Susan Swedo-a doctor with the National Institutes of Health-discovered that an undiagnosed strep infection was the cause of one child’s disabling illness. The more Swedo dug, the more evidence she found: Strep was linked to symptoms normally chalked up to psychiatric illness. She also discovered how non-accepting modern medicine can be of new ideas. Swedo has put her reputation and career in jeopardy as she fights to cure the condition she named: pediatric autoimmune neuropsychiatric disorder associated with Streptococcal infections (PANDAS).
A few leading neurologists and others publicly ridicule Swedo and her PANDAS theory, creating controversy over diagnoses and treatment. This group has become known on social media as the “non-believers.”
The result: the entire pediatric-care industry is confused and doesn’t know what to do…and it’s the children who suffer. “My Kid is Not Crazy,” tracks the journey of six children and their families as they become tangled in the nightmare of a medical system heavily influenced by the pharmaceutical industry. Here it is common for a caregiver to prescribe a young child with a selective serotonin uptake inhibitor (SSRI) but hesitate to prescribe an antibiotic to counteract a potential infectious-based trigger. Sorel found that for some of these children, what happens after several years is shocking and sad.
To view the documentary
You can order the DVD, or watch on Vimeo for just a few dollars. See details here
