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PANDAS occurs in adults. Period. If an adult can acquire Rheumatic Fever or Glomerulonephritis after a strep infection, that adult can acquire PANDAS. If an adult can acquire Lyme disease, mycoplasma, and a myriad of viral infections, that adult can acquire PANDAS. If there is a flaw in this logic I missed it.
It has been a while since I posted anything on PANDAS. In that time I have diagnosed dozens of new cases of PANDAS in children, adolescents and, yes indeed, adults. A few actually came to see me to find out if they had PANDAS.
The population is split between patients who had never been to a psychiatrist before and those who had been to one, or many, with less than salutary results. The presenting complaints varied broadly; anxiety, panic, depression, ADHD, sleep difficulties, OCD, tics, Bipolar Disorder, ODD, headaches, fibromyalgia, medication side effects. And many more.Why do I find so many PANDAS cases? Is it something in the air in Beverly Hills? Is there a cluster of cases in the area? No. It comes down to knowing when to look for certain things. If one does not know to look one never finds. There is a surfeit of undiagnosed cases of PANDAS throughout the populace and it is time for doctors to learn about it and to look for it.
Indeed, many new consultations are very straightforward and do not require more than clinical acumen to arrive at a diagnosis and treatment plan. Further evaluation becomes necessary when Plan A fails. Many presentations have histories and or symptoms that demand a work-up. I won’t go into a litany of them here. Physicians are supposed to know them. Serial drug trials and cocktails are not all there is for us to do.
One does not suddenly catch OCD at 32. Could those explosive tantrums or outbursts be manifestations of Tourette’s? How come one’s anxiety and panic seem to get worse after a sinus infection? Are those tics attributed to one’s amphetamines (which help one’s ADHD dramatically) an unmasking or exacerbation of PANDAS? What about the refractory Anorexia Nervosa that gets worse after each bout of tonsillitis? Might it be a brilliant idea if the doc checked your Anti-DNAase B strep antibody, streptozyme, ASO titres, Lyme and Mycoplasma IGG and IGM, ESR, RPR, and a few other things based upon circumstance? And if the labs aren’t perfect, how about a visit to a knowledgable ENT and an immunologist?
I am not an immunologist. I refer all of my cases to a superb one, Dr. Richard Harris. He finds all sorts of subtle immune deficiencies that I did not study in medical school because they were not yet known. IGG subtypes and defective responses and such. Then he does nifty things with Pneumovax, allergy treatment, IVIG and more.
The questions and pleas received from patients and families around the world are frustrating. I cannot treat them over the Internet. Maybe you need to push your physicians more. Bring them data and references. Encourage them to make inquiries. But do keep in mind that psychiatrists are (supposed to be) physicians first who evaluate, diagnose and treat their patients. Not prescription machines. It is okay to inquire before a first visit if a doctor is aware and knowledgable about certain things, and to expect a forthright answer.
