PANS & PANDAS
PANDAS- Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorder Associated with Streptococcal infection
PANS- Pediatric Acute-onset Neuropsychiatric Syndrome
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PANS is often described as the fairly sudden onset of OCD behavior or motor tics following a strep infection.
PANDAS is a subset of PANS.
Additional features are can be present including vocal tics, depression, motor or sensory abnormalities, somatic signs and symptoms (including sleep disturbance, urinary frequency and bed wetting), anxiety/separation anxiety, Tourette's, mood swings, anorexia, inattention, loss of cognitive function such as math skills, and defiant behavior.
Patients with PANDAS are similar to those with PANS, however, eating disturbances are not in the diagnostic criteria and the trigger is a streptococcal infection.
Triggering infections for PANDAS are thought to include the flu, mycoplasma, Lyme disease Lyme disease, mono and assorted viruses. These infections can enter tissues and cause a malfunctioning of the immune system.
The symptoms can disappear for a time and then return.
Please visit https://www.pandasppn.org and http://pandasnetwork.org for more information.
Last Updated- April 2019
Lucy Barnes