Television

LISBON, Ohio (WYTV) – Dr. Elizabeth Spaar explains PANDAS — how it happens and what it causes.

LISBON, Ohio (WYTV) – Sudden outbursts, tantrums, tics and bouts of OCD in children — and it seems to almost happen overnight.

The disorder is most commonly known as PANDAS — Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococcal Infections.

OKLAHOMA – Medical experts say strep can trigger brain inflammation called PANDAS.

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — It’s that time of year again. Not the holidays, but strep throat season.

It’s a common and painful infection for young kids that’s usually cured by antibiotics. But for a few children, strep can trigger bizarre behavioral disorders such as severe tantrums, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and even tics.

Saul and Bonnie Markowitz remember the day their world changed forever. It was Feb. 2, 2007. Their son, Brandon, was 5 when he suddenly changed. He suffered tantrums that couldn’t be controlled and debilitating OCD. Brandon wasn’t Brandon.

This year, the Arkansas General Assembly passed a resolution, proclaiming the 9th of October as National PANDAS/PANS Awareness Day.

It’s not the type of pandas you might be thinking of; it’s much more serious. PANDAS stands for Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorder and PANS stands for Pediatric Acute Onset Neuropsychiatric Disorder. Both are often misdiagnosed, yet treatable.

An Oklahoma company is working to help children who have a disorder that affects millions worldwide. “We kept having reoccurring strep,” remember Amanda Mullins, “then recurrent ear infections. It was just like one infection after the next.” Then Mullins remembers her daughter, Riya, drastically changed. She was just a toddler. “She quit playing,” she said. “She quit laughing. She quit being a kid. She’d wake up in the middle of the night in an angry rage. She doesn’t even know why she’s angry, you know, and just throwing things.”

Emily Gavigan was convinced that a nearby truck was following her. Someone was after her.

She was a sophomore at the University of Scranton ina January 2009 when the “bizarre” behavior began, said her father, Bill.
Her parents noticed that she had been rambling, not making any sense. At one point, she called her family and friends to warn them: Something terrible was going to happen to all of them.
“Emily was like a different person. We didn’t know who she was,” Bill Gavigan said. “We had gone from having this daughter who was perfectly normal, happy, vibrant … with a bright future ahead. All of a sudden, this all came crashing down.”

So many families are familiar with the difficult decisions involved in giving prescription drugs to kids. Millions of children take psychiatric drugs, often for things as routine as ADHD. But how much do doctors really know about them? NBC’s Kate Snow reports.

“The one really recognized, research corroborated, mental health diagnosis that can be brought on by infection.”  As stated by Dr. Gail Saltz on the show, commenting about PANDAS.

 

Finally, six and one-half years after publication of Saving Sammy: Curing the Boy Who Caught OCD, no one used the word “controversial.”