Special recoveries from major mental illness in childhood: a case series
RESEARCH IMPACT:
“Special recoveries from major mental illness in childhood: a case series” adds to the emerging evidence linking neuropsychiatric symptoms in children with underlying infections and immune dysregulation, including tick-borne diseases. It challenges conventional psychiatric paradigms by demonstrating full recovery in severely impaired youth who received multi-pronged treatment approaches that addressed infection, inflammation, and gut related issues.
SUMMARY
“Special recoveries from major mental illness in childhood: a case series” examines three pediatric patients who experienced sudden-onset, severe neuropsychiatric symptoms and made full recoveries following the identification and treatment of infectious, inflammatory, and gastrointestinal contributors. The three patients were diagnosed with Pediatric Acute-Onset Neuropsychiatric Syndrome (PANS), and one was additionally diagnosed with Sydenham’s chorea, with histories or strep and/or tick-borne diseases.
Despite initially being unresponsive to conventional psychiatric care, all three patients improved significantly or fully recovered when treated for underlying infection alongside immune and gut-targeted therapies. Interventions included antimicrobials, anti-inflammatory agents, probiotics, and more. This series underscores the growing recognition of neuroimmune mechanisms in pediatric neuropsychiatry and supports the need for broader diagnostic and therapeutic frameworks that incorporate infectious, immune, and gut-brain axis assessments in treatment-resistant psychiatric presentations. It also highlights the limitations of current psychiatric standards that often exclude immune or infectious workups in youth with acute, disabling psychiatric changes.
LINK TO PAPER: https://doi.org/10.3389/frcha.2025.1377547
CITATION
Monarch, E. S., & Foss, S. (2025). Case Report: Special recoveries from major mental illness in childhood: a case series. Frontiers in child and adolescent psychiatry, 4, 1377547.