There is an infectious disease in the brain.
There is a disorder called PANDAS that is associated with Streptococcal infections. Strep infections can lead to tics, OCD, and Anorexia.
A case report was published in 2007. Children started showing tics after a strep sore throat outbreak in the late 1900s. The tics disappeared when antibiotics were used to kill the strep.
The boy had a number of disorders, including PANDAS, obsessive-compulsive disorder, tics, and anorexia nervosa. An 8-year-old boy with a sore throat developed rituals before eating. He nodded, flapped his arms, tapped his mount, opened and closed his fists, and took a bite. He said the rituals helped him deal with the thought that the food was poisoned. He became conscious of his eating habits, avoiding bad foods and eating only 200 calories per day. His behavioural anomalies vanished after he received treatment for his sore throat.
When a child develops tics or OCD, it’s a diagnosis. When symptoms of tics/OCD get worse after a strep infection. PANDAS was put under the category of obsessive-compulsive and related disorders by the DSM-5. PANDAS is more associated with tic and OCD, but it may also include an eating disorder. What you need to know.
It’s precise prevalence is still unknown due to the lack of diagnostic guidelines. Scientists estimated that at least 10% of children have tic disorders. Almost all children have had a throat infection at one point in their lives. The average school child gets it every year. It is caused by a bacterium. Simple antibiotics can clear up a sore throat. It can lead to PANDAS in a small subset of children.
Long-term outcomes of PANDAS vary between cases due to the variability of the subtypes and treatment protocols. It’s not known whether children with a PANDAS subtype will go on to remission or progress to a more chronic course of illness. Antibiotics and cognitive behavioural therapy are usually used. Steroids and antidepressants can be prescribed if necessary, though they can cause side effects in children. Aggressive antibiotics have a cure rate of 50% according to a population study.
Basal Ganglia is from India. Long-term antibiotics until adulthood are necessary if Strep infection is recurrent. Even if Strep is eliminated, some may still suffer from the effects of the brain being compromised. As the immune system matures, some children can recover naturally.
The basal ganglia are involved in PANDAS, tic and OCD. It is a set of brain structures that are enriched with dopamine neurons. The outer cortex controls voluntary movement.
The most common form of movement disorder in children is tic. tics are sudden and repetitive movements such as shoulder shrugging, blinking, or head jerking. The prevalence of tic can be short-term or long-tern. OCD affects a small percentage of the general population. It is characterized by persistent unwanted thoughts and/or repetitive behaviours driven by strong urges.
The trickster Streptococci. The dopamine-powered motor cortex is used to control and select goal- directed motor, cognitive and motivational behaviour.
Their Strep-specific antibodies reacted with brain dopamine in a lab plate. Motoric disorders can be caused by the deposit of Strep-specific antibodies in the basal ganglia. Immunize mice for Strep and the same thing happens. 40% of children and adolescents with tics/OCD have higher levels of Strep-specific antibodies in their blood. Their immune system was fighting Strepbacteria.
This is a form of autoimmunity when the immune system attacks the cells of the host. This shows that the immune system can attack the brain and the central nervous system with Strep neutralizing antibodies. The immune system mistook the basal ganglia for Strepbacteria. The immune system is tricked into attacking the basal ganglia.
The best explanation for an autoimmunity is a form of mimicry. The structure of the pathogen is similar to other parts of the body. Antibodies that bind to the pathogen might unintentionally bind to other tissues. What is the trick?
Maybe you have more of a genetic risk for OCD or an eating disorder, and the infection exposes that vulnerability. Kyle Williams is the director of the pediatric-neuropsychiatry-and-immunology program at Massachusetts General Hospital for Children. It is not known if there are chances of molecular mimicry happening. People with genetics that make them prone to developing autoimmune diseases are thought to be at a higher risk.
Food and body weight obsessions, obsessive exercise, and purges can be symptoms of an eating disorder. Anorexia is a neurological disorder with multifactorial causes that include sociocultural, psychological and biological aspects. Pandas Anorexia is a disease.
The obsessions in children with PANDAS OCD are not about food and weight, but about other things. In 2000, Mae Sokol, MD and professor of Psychiatry at Creighton University in Omaha, reported 4 cases of “infection-triggered anorexia nervosa in children.” The children were also diagnosed with a number of disorders. After taking antibiotics, they regained their weight.
It seems that Strep is playing tricks on the immune system to target the basal ganglia, and appetite hormones. The psychiatrist professor said that the area of the brain that is involved with emotion may be affected differently with each condition. Researchers found higher levels of antibodies that target appetite-regulating hormones in the bloodstream of anorexics. They have not pinpointed a specific agent that is involved in the mimicry. There are more details here.
Jim Morris, a professor at Lancaster University, UK, says that disease is caused by biological factors, social factors, and psychological factors all interacting together. It works with mental illness as well. To close.
When a child suddenly develops food rituals, becomes picky about food and loses weight, you might not think of abacterial, viral, or other types of infections. Genetics and other medical comorbidities have been the focus of researchers for decades. The biological aspect of psychiatric diseases has begun to gain recognition as part of the microbial angle. Scientists have a long way to go, as evidenced by the lack of clinical studies, diagnostic and treatment guidelines, statistical prevalence, etc.
Caelyn H. inspired this article.
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