News

 

Researchers at Columbia University Medical Center and the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis have discovered how immune cells triggered by recurrent Strep A infections enter the brain, causing inflammation that may lead to autoimmune neuropsychiatric disorders in children. The study, performed in mice, found that immune cells reach the brain by traveling along odor-sensing neurons that emerge from the nasal cavity, not by breaching the blood-brain barrier directly.

 

New research is revealing that many cases of depression are caused by an allergic reaction to inflammation.  By treating the inflammatory symptoms of depression — rather than the neurological ones — researchers and doctors are opening up an exciting new dimension in the fight against what has become a global epidemic.

Medical docs miss little-known diagnosis of boy’s sudden-onset psychiatric disorder

 

 

The parents of a West Quebec boy who spent two years in a medical “nightmare” are urging Canadian doctors to follow the U.S. lead by taking a closer look at a psychiatric disorder in children that’s caused by a bacterial infection.

 

 

Suzy Wiggins Fournel and Martin Fournel told CBC News their son Caleb, now 8, was diagnosed in the spring with pediatric autoimmune neuropsychiatric disorders associated with streptococcal infections, called PANDAS for short.

 

 

He was prescribed antibiotics for one year, and today, Caleb is back climbing trees again at his home in La Pêche, north of Ottawa. He’s a far cry from the boy he was prior to his diagnosis, when he could barely leave the house.