Keywords

Pediatric, Obsessive -compulsive disorder, Tics, Group A streptococcus, Psychiatry, Autoimmune

Abstract

This research paper delves into pediatric autoimmune neuropsychiatric disorder associated with streptococcus (PANDAS). PANDAS causes rapid psychiatric changes in children ages 3 to puberty. These changes are most often obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and/or tics, however, anxiety, agitation, mood disorder, depression, oppositional defiance disorder, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, hallucinations, memory/cognitive deficits, enuresis, and sleep disturbances have also been noted. Present-day estimations of PANDAS cases would likely prove to be understated if awareness of PANDAS increased (Centner, 2021). The purpose of this paper is to disseminate awareness and data of a disease that has gone relatively unnoticed in American medicine since being defined as a novel disease in 1998 (Perlmutter et al., 1999). Awareness is essential to those who care for pediatric populations. It is hoped that increased awareness will lead to improved care of these children (Wilbur et al., 2019).