A switch to her child who is scary. Beth, 13 years old (today 16) was a British teenager full of promises. “She was among the best students, mature and autonomous”, testifies his mother Toni Shepherd in the columns of Manchester Evening News. But in 2022, the girl began to behave strangely: anger access, paranoia, hallucinations … enough to worry her family circle.
A brutal descent into the disease
However, Beth’s attitude has nothing to do with a teenage crisis. In a few weeks, she no longer identifies her own family, believes that we want to remove it and suffer from prolonged tremors and paralysis. Faced with the crises that multiply, his helpless mother, leaves her work as a maternal assistant. “It’s as if someone had reached a switch”, she says. “I no longer recognized my own daughter.” Daily becomes a permanent fight to protect Beth-sometimes against itself. But what happens to the girl?
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A diagnosis as rare as late
The answer appears after months of wandering. A name is finally placed: Beth is affected by Pans syndrome, for PEDIATRIC ACUTE-MON NEUROPSYCHIATRIC Syndrome (Acute child neuropsychiatric syndrome). This disorder, little known to the general public, and affecting the 3-14 year olds, is caused by an autoimmune inflammation of the brain, often following an infection. In some cases, especially when a streptococcal angina is involved, we are talking about Pandas.
“CInflammation affects central gray nuclei, brain structures involved in the control of emotions, movements and behavior “explains Dr. Joachim Mullner, specialist doctor.
Due to this brain inflammation, young affected patients may have behaviors related to:
- Ideal obsessions in the context of an obsessive compulsive disorder;
- Behavioral tics;
- Behavioral disorders;
- An emotional deregulation with for example anger attacks and clastic crises (during which the subject becomes violent and breaks objects), mood disorders, or sleep disorders for example.
Urgent management is essential
The psychiatrist insists: This syndrome must trigger medical care urgently. The diagnosis is based on:
- In -depth clinical observation (neurological and psychiatric examination);
- A complete biological assessment, including a recent infection search;
- Brain imaging (MRI);
- Sometimes a lumbar puncture or an electroencephalogram (EEG)
The treatment depends on the cause identified. He may include:
- Antibiotics, if it is a pandas form with streptococcal infection;
- Anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs, corticosteroids) to reduce brain inflammation;
- Psychiatric management with drug and psychotherapeutic treatment;
- In some cases, immunotherapy (such as intravenous immunoglobulins).
A syndrome that must be more known. Today, Beth lives with disabling symptoms. She alternates wheelchair, crutches and rare days of mobility, sleeps badly, and remains victims of her obsessive fears. His family launched a kitty to finance hyperbaric oxygen therapy, a still experimental treatment supposed to reduce brain inflammation.