Peeling the Onion: PANDAS and the PANS Project (Premium)

This article on PANDAS: Pediatric acute-onset neuropsychiatric syndrome and the PANS Project was updated November 7, 2013

When we see our child develop an illness that causes behaviors to suddenly, dramatically change, we expect to be able to turn to a professional for help—a doctor or therapist or psychiatrist whose years of training and experience have produced an ample medical tool kit that will cure what ails our child. After all, we’re already wearing many hats in the challenging job called parenthood. We never signed up to add “medical specialist” to our job description.

So when our child suddenly wakes up as a different kid, when our school-loving kindergartner is suddenly terrified of leaving mom and getting on the bus, when an ice-cream loving third grader suddenly won’t eat anything for fear of throwing up, when our active, sports-loving fifth grader can’t get off the couch, the first thing we do is call the pediatrician. A handful of fortunate parents may find a doctor who has heard of and is willing to treat a group of infection-triggered neuropsychiatric disorders now known as PANS (Pediatric Acute-onset Neuropsychiatric Syndrome).* But more commonly, our local doctor, or more likely, many doctors, won’t make our sick child well.