He noted the underlying cause being an infection, but offered the medical condidtion can lead to behavioral situations, including A.D.D.
...strep infection... damages brain on neurological side that could also be medical...
He said along with medication, a behavioral approach has to be undertaken as well.
video Dr. Marc Siegel "Medical Rewind"
http://video.foxnews.com/12239060/medical-rewind
http://www.iseenews.com/watch/bless-you-foxnewschannel
Also Dr. Manny Alvarez comments in the following video
video sneezing girl gets diagnosis called PANDAS
http://video.foxnews.com/12213484/bless-you
Thursday, Dec. 3, 2009 report
Girl Who Sneezes 12,000 Times a Day Gets Official Diagnosis
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,579070,00.html
Washington, Dec 4 : An American girl, who sneezes up to 12,000 times a day, has been given an official diagnosis, with doctors saying that she is suffering from PANDAS (Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorder Associated with Streptococcus).
...Symptoms of PANDAS include obsessive or compulsive behaviours, Tourette's syndrome and attention deficit disorder.
http://www.andhranews.net/Health/2009/December/4-Girl-sneezes-43082.asp
Sneezing girl officially diagnosed
Doctors say she has PANDAS
Updated: Wednesday, 02 Dec 2009, 6:32 PM EST
Published : Wednesday, 02 Dec 2009, 5:38 PM EST
Katie Collett
CHESAPEAKE, Va. - For several weeks, WAVY.com has been following Lauren Johnson, the 12 year-old Chesapeake girl who started sneezing in upwards of 12,000 times per day after suffering from a bad cold. Recently, Lauren was officially diagnosed with Paediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorder Associated with Streptococcus, otherwise known as PANDAS.
"Now we can actually treat it as something," says Lauren who is thrilled to finally have a diagnosis.
WAVY.com spoke with Dr. Rosario Trifiletti, a child neurologist treating Lauren. He explained the onset of PANDAS. "Following a common streptococcal infection, the most common of which people are familiar with, the strep throat from a few days to a couple of weeks later, there's a marked change in a child that gets this."
Trifiletti says those changes happen quickly. PANDAS symptoms include:
Cognitive inflexibility, difficult to reason with, as if stuck on an idea
Obsessive/repetitive/compulsive argumentative behaviours
TICS (repetitive vocalisations of body movements)
Tourettes Syndrome
Attention deficits and oppositional/defiant behaviours.
The good news? There is treatment for Lauren and other children who suffer from PANDAS.
"She was placed on antibiotics and has improved considerably," says Dr. Trifiletti.
However, there is some bad news.
"Lauren is at risk of getting this again, so we're probably going to place her on some sort of...a low dose of antibiotics, for a long period of time," says Dr. Trifiletti.
Lauren's family learned the PANDAS diagnosis is relatively unknown. It was discovered only 13 years ago meaning a lot of trial and error.
http://www.wavy.com/dpp/news/local_news/Sneezing-girl-officially-diagnosed
...There are two variants of this disease, one that causes tics and another that causes OCD:
If you are interested in more detail, I highly recommend Moretti's paper "What every psychiatrist should know about PANDAS" http://www.cpementalhealth.com/content/pdf/1745-0...
Another good one that's easier to read is from the school nurse's perspective "PANDAS in the school setting" http://www.schoolnursenews.org/BackIssues/2003/09...
http://www.wavy.com/dpp/news/local_news/Sneezing-girl-officially-diagnosed
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