Researchers unveil new treatment guidelines for PANS

July 19 (UPI) -- A panel of experts has developed comprehensive treatment guidelines to manage the treatment of children with Pediatric Acute Onset Neuropsychiatric Syndrome, or PANS.

The new guidelines also relate to the treatment of PAN Disorder Associated with Streptococcal Infection, or PANDAS.

PANS is the lighting-like onset of obsessive-compulsive disorder, or OCD, or eating restrictions and comorbid symptoms from anxiety, emotional ability or depression, irritability, aggression, severely oppositional behaviors, declining school performance, sensory or motor abnormalities and somatic symptoms like sleep disturbances, enuresis or urinary frequency.

PANDAS is when PANS is triggered by a Group A streptococcal infection.

The guidelines include symptom improvement aimed at decreasing suffering, improving functioning and helping children adhere to therapeutic interventions.

Researchers from the PANS Research Consortium provided recommendations to guide the use of therapies that target the neuroinflammation and post-infectious autoimmunity commonly found in PANS-PANDAS.

The panel urges that while underlying infectious and inflammatory processes in PANS and PANDAS patients are being treated, psychiatric and behavioral symptoms should simultaneously be treated to aid patients and make therapies more effective.

Researchers also encourage all psychological, behavioral and psychopharmacological interventions to be individually tailored to each patient's needs to provide symptom improvement and improved functioning during acute and chronic stages of the disease.

The study was published July 19 in the Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology.