Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is a treatment for certain types of mental illness including severe depression, schizophrenia, catatonia or mania. With this treatment a current of electricity is passed through the brain (under anaesthesia) causing a fit or seizure. Although this treatment has been approved by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) for […]

PANDAS stands for “Paediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorder Associated with Streptococcus” whilst PANS stands for “Paediatric Neuropsychiatric Syndrome”. Many consider PANDAS to be a sub-set of PANS but is this correct or are we seeing two different pathologies? Indeed, we have to ask ourselves if instead of two distinct disease entities we are actually dealing with […]

I first started seeing children with PANDAS about 9 years ago. PANDAS is an acronym for “Paediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorder Associated with Streptococcus”. In simple terms this means that children, following a streptococcus (“Strep’) infection get unusual features such as tics (uncontrolled abnormal movements), obsessive compulsive behaviours, start wetting and may also have difficulty eating. […]