Blog

World PANS PANDAS Awareness Day #LightUp4PANS
Volunteers Needed: We need volunteers to reach out to their municipalities to request that they light up monuments, like the state house, bridges, monuments, etc., be lit up on October 9th,...

IOCDF Town Hall on PANS PANDAS
🌟 Join IOCDF for a Special PANS PANDAS Town Hall! 🌟 As part of PANS PANDAS Awareness Week, the IOCDF is hosting an incredible Town Hall featuring three inspiring voices:...

Sammi’s Remarkable Comeback: From Struggle to Strength!
In late November of 2023, we noticed that our daughter, Sammi, had a limp. She had fallen and said her knee hurt. The next week, she began acting very tired...

The Cost of Inaction –
What is the cost of not treating PANS/ PANDAS promptly & appropriately? We recently sat down with Susan Swedo, MD, to discuss a critical topic: the cost of inaction when...
IVIG response in pediatric acute-onset neuropsychiatric syndrome correlates with reduction in pro-inflammatory monocytes and neuropsychiatric measures
- Study aimed to investigate the pro-inflammatory state in PANS patients before and after IVIG treatment.
- Ten male PANS patients (ages 6–16) received six IVIG infusions over 3 weeks.
- Blood samples and psychiatric assessments were taken before treatment and at follow-up points (4 and 11 weeks post-treatment).
- Myeloid cell activation was analyzed using flow cytometry.* Significant improvement in all psychiatric assessments and parent-reported outcomes (CY-BOCS, YGTSS, and PANS rating scales; all p<0.001).
- Pro-inflammatory monocytes and dendritic cells significantly decreased after IVIG.
- Reduction in pro-inflammatory monocytes was observed both proportionally and in absolute numbers.

California PANS PANDAS Updates
California Legislative Action Please follow this page and ASPIRE’s social media for updates – Facebook and Instagram. Please contact CALPANS with questions regarding California legislative...

Bennett’s PANS PANDAS Story
Bennett was a typically developing 7-year-old boy when he started second grade, the first year back to school full time after COVID-19, without masks. That December, he came down...

Don’t Give Up – Skylar’s PANS/PANDAS Story
Hi! My name is Skylar, and I was diagnosed with PANS in October 2023 after struggling with it for around 10 years. I was 7 or 8 years old...

The Inflammation Factor
Therapists need to be aware of when inflammatory disorders can masquerade as psychiatric conditions Therapy Today – September, 2024 – Lucy McDonald is a counselor at the Children’s...

The Story of Emily The Great
This is the journey of Emily, who is now 16. She began experiencing PANS symptoms in 2020 during the height of COVID-19; before that, Emily was a typical kid and did all the things that girls her age...
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and Other Specified Anxiety Disorder in an 8-Year-Old Post-respiratory Infection: A Case Report
Tran, Michael; Amador, Alcides; and Camacho Bermudez, Sofia, “Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and Other Specified Anxiety Disorder in an 8-Year-Old Post-respiratory Infection: A Case Report” (2024). Research Colloquium. 91.https://scholarworks.utrgv.edu/colloquium/2024/posters/91
Conclusions: This case underscores the importance of considering infectious etiologies in the differential diagnosis of sudden-onset psychiatric symptoms in pediatric patients. The positive response to Sertraline and the proposed CBT highlights the potential benefits of a combined pharmacological and therapeutic approach in managing OCD and anxiety disorders. Continued follow-up and treatment adaptation is essential to ensure sustained improvement and quality of life for pediatric patients with similar presentations.