In 1979 the Boomtown rats released a single, “I don’t like Mondays”, the background to the song is tragic and were the words used by a shooter in San Diego to explain her actions. After a request from Steve Jobs to play at a gig, Bob Geldof was inspired to write the first line of […]

As we prepare to launch the London PANS Clinic, I felt that it would be useful to reflect on the recent neuroimmune 2024 conference for parents of children with PANS PANDAS. The conference took place in Palo Alto, California (although it was virtual) and there were some significant updates with the standout presentations from Jenny […]

Whilst doing my ward round I came across a patient who was being attended to by one of the junior doctors, a 12 year old boy who had been admitted with “seizures”, a relatively common condition which most paediatric trainees should feel comfortable in managing. The patient, let’s call him Peter (not his name), had […]

For those of you who watched the 1990 film ‘Awakenings” starring Robin Williams and Robert De Niro, the concept of a patient being frozen in time only to awaken when given the correct medication will not be an unfamiliar one. This true story depicted patients who appeared to be in a frozen catatonic state for […]

It’s been a busy week or two in the world of PANDAS with the publication of the Nordic guidelines (1) together with the release of the “Consensus statement on childhood neuropsychiatric presentations, with a focus on PANDAS/PANS” by the British Paediatric Neurology Association (BPNA) (2). This was preceded by the EMTICS paper by Martino et […]

A recent paper in the journal Neurology sought to investigate the association between Group A Streptococcus exposure and chronic tic disorders (Martino D,et al. Neurology, 2021;96 (12)). The Scientific and Medical Advisory Group of The European Immuno-Neuropsychiatric Association  (EXPAND) has responded to this publication and this response can be read by clicking on the following […]