What is PANDAS?
PANDAS is a pediatric autoimmune neuropsychiatric condition characterized by the onset of obsessive-compulsive symptoms or nervous tics due to a streptococcal infection. Psychiatrist Gail Saltz, MD, explains the illness and its symptoms.
Transcript
What happens is when you get strep, the bacteria hides itself in your body
by having, basically, factors on the outside that make it look like other organs in your body.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
PANDAS, which stands for Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Diagnosis Associated with Strep--
a long name-- is basically the onset of obsessive compulsive disorder or tics, or both of them,
in children who've developed an infection due to strep. What happens is when you get strep,
the bacteria hides itself in your body by having, basically, factors on the outside
that make it look like other organs in your body. At some point, the body figures out, hey, this is an infection.
And it makes antibodies to that bacteria. And the antibodies end up attacking the organ
that the strep looked like. One of those organs is the brain. So for some kids, probably those that have a family
history to some degree of an anxiety disorder or OCD or tics, who are susceptible, potentially,
to this, they may, upon getting a strep infection, go from being perfectly healthy and normal
and not having any of these behaviors, to suddenly having a big onslaught of either obsessive
compulsive symptoms or tics, which is the repetitive behavior that has no particular purpose
but happens many times a day. Or they may have moodiness. They may have hyperactivity.
Those are other symptoms that can come along with it. But when you notice suddenly your kid had a sore throat, your kid had a cold of some sort,
and suddenly, they develop these behaviors, you should think about this kind of infection. You should bring them to the pediatrician
and get a strep test. [AUDIO LOGO]
child development
Browse videos by topic categories
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z
ALL