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 […]

So we are at the start of the Omicron Covid wave in the UK and following on from the kerfuffle of the “Downing Street Party” the government has implemented “Plan B” in attempt (they say) to reduce the impact of Omicron on the NHS rather than to distract from the loss of trust in a […]

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 […]

There is no doubt that the UK has done a fantastic job with the Covid-19 vaccination programme and it is clear that this has hit the EU very very hard. The EU has been caught with it’s trousers around it’s ankles and they are now going to do anything to minimise the political damage. The […]