PANDAS Physicians Network is proud to award $50,000 to Dr. Lauren Breithaupt, Assistant Professor, Director Peripheral-brain Interactions Neuropsychiatry Center at Harvard Medical School, for her work in the development and evaluation of a clinical assessment of Pediatric Autoimmune and Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococcal Infections (PANDAS) and Pediatric Acute-Onset Neuropsychiatric Syndrome (PANS). This award was funded through the PPN Request For Proposals cycle.

Dr. Breithaupt’s work will fill a vital gap in the current diagnostic process by providing standard guidelines for assessing current PANS/PANDAS criteria and establishing the severity and clinical features of immune mediated neuroinflammatory brain disorders triggered by infections in both children and adults.

The development of a structured and comprehensive measure for PANS and PANDAS will benefit families, clinicians, and researchers. It provides families a pathway to an accurate diagnosis, which will reduce the time between symptom onset and recovery. For primary care providers, it aids in determining the best treatment options for their patients. Furthermore, it advances research by providing a standardized way to define the PANS/PANDAS population. This can accelerate the development of effective treatments and interventions, as researchers will have a more consistent population to study.

This project represents a new partnership between Harvard Medical School and Stanford University, with Dr. Breithaupt collaborating with Jennifer Frankovich, MD and Allison Vreeland, PhD.

Dr. Breithaupt has expertise in both eating disorders and obsessive compulsive disorder, including individuals with PANS/PANDAS. She is a clinical psychologist and neuroscientist whose research focuses on understanding how changes in the peripheral body impact the brain and central nervous system and contribute to the development and maintenance of psychiatric disease.

PANDAS Physicians Network (PPN) is a non-profit organization that provides PANS/PANDAS resources to clinicians while supporting research. Our vision is that PANS/PANDAS will become easily diagnosed and treated with accessible therapies that dramatically reduce suffering and lead to a cure. www.pandasppn.org