PANS/PANDAS: SYMPTOMS & DIAGNOSING

Children with PANS have an abrupt and dramatic onset of:

• OCD or Restrictive Eating Disorder
• plus additional symptoms from at least 2 of the following categories:
• Anxiety and/or separation anxiety
• Emotional lability and/or depression
• Irritability, aggression, and/or severe oppositional behaviors
• Behavioral regression
• Deterioration in school performance
• Sensory or motor abnormalities (including tics)
• Somatic signs and symptoms, including sleep disturbances or urinary frequency

PANS (Pediatric Acute-onset Neuropsychiatric Syndrome) is a clinically defined disorder. Patients experience a sudden onset of obsessive-compulsive symptoms (OCD) and/or eating restrictions, along with acute deterioration in at least two of the symptom categories listed above. The syndrome is thought to be an immune reaction to a number of physiological stressors including Group A Streptococcal infection, Mycoplasma pneumonia infection, influenza, upper respiratory infections, sinusitis, Lyme, and psychosocial stresses. PANS has no age limitation.

PANDAS (Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococcal infections) is a subset of PANS. PANDAS has five distinct criteria for diagnosis, including abrupt OCD or dramatic, disabling tics; a relapsing-remitting, episodic symptom course; young age at onset (average of 6–7 years); presence of neurologic abnormalities; and temporal association between symptom onset and Group A strep infection. The 5 criteria usually are accompanied by similar comorbid symptoms as found in PANS.

TRADITIONAL OCD VS PANS/PANDAS

PANS/PANDAS differs from traditional childhood OCD in presentation and treatment options. PANDAS/PANS may be considered a form of Basal Ganglia Autoimmune Encephalitis.