If you were not at the RCOT Conference, you have missed the opportunity to hear Alexis speak with powerful words about her experience as an autistic person being detained under the Mental Health Act, her escape to Lagos and her return to the UK to tell her story and advocate for improved support and care for autistic people within the mental health system.
It’s not too late to register for the RCOT Annual Conference, and with conference materials available for the next 6 months, the £99 registration fee, with a chance to hear Alexis’ story and her clear understanding of what OT can offer to the healthcare system, it’s great value for money CPD.
So often people ask about DCD and sensory integration, and often the reply given is a quote from Bundy Lane
A recent study concluded that
“Our findings indicate that sensory processing abnormalities may contribute to the pathophysiology of DCD, suggesting the importance of assessing sensory processing functions in children with DCD.”
This article by science mag uses the analogy of predictive coding to explore how a mismatch between what the brain predicts might happen with what actually happens can cause the brain to be in a constant state of surprise. It attempts to explain some of the core features of Autism, Sensory Integration differences, poor habituation, focus on detail rather than the big picture and difficulties with social interaction…
“In Ayaya’s telling, her autism involves a host of perceptual disconnects. For example, she feels in exquisite detail all the sensations that typical people readily identify as hunger, but she can’t piece them together. “It’s very hard for me to conclude I’m hungry,” she says. “I feel irritated, or I feel sad, or I feel something [is] wrong. This information is separated, not connected.” It takes her so long to realize she is hungry that she often feels faint and gets something to eat only after someone suggests it to her.” Read more here…
These guidelines were first published in May 2018 following several meetings between the PANS Physicians’ Network UK (PPNUK) and the Charity PANS PANDAS UK. Based on the US treatment guidelines originally written by the US PANDAS Physicians’ Network, these guidelines have been modified to adapt to UK medical practice, GP’s are strongly encouraged to start treatment and investigations early as early treatment is likely to improve the long term outcome of these patients.
“There is gradually accumulating evidence that there are some children who experience sudden onset of a neuropsychiatric disorder (usually obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) or tics) following a Group A beta-haemolytic streptococcal infection (GABHS). The acronym PANDAS was first cited in 1998 to describe this group of patients.[1]However, neurological sequelae of streptococcal infection have been well recognised (eg, Sydenham’s chorea described by William Osler in 1894).[2]
Doubt remains about the aetiology of the condition and whether it can be considered an independent disease entity.[3]
More recently the term PANS (paediatric acute-onset neuropsychiatric syndrome) has been suggested, as it captures both the sudden onset and uncertainty about the aetiology.[4]”
Swedo et al 2012 “From Research Subgroup to Clinical Syndrome: Modifying the PANDAS Criteria to Describe PANS (Pediatric Acute-onset Neuropsychiatric Syndrome)”
PANS (Pediatric Acute-onset Neuropsychiatric Syndrome) is when an infectious trigger, environmental factors, and other possible triggers create a misdirected immune response results in inflammation on a child’s brain. In turn, the child quickly begins to exhibit life changing symptoms such as OCD, severe restrictive eating, anxiety, tics, personality changes, decline in math and handwriting abilities, sensory sensitivities, and more.
PANS was introduced in 2012 by Dr. Susan Swedo in the paper From Research Subgroup to Clinical Syndrome: Modifying the PANDAS Criteria to Describe PANS (Pediatric Acute-onset Neuropsychiatric Syndrome).
The PANS Criteria
PANS is a clinical diagnosis. The following is the “working criteria” as listed Dr. Swedo’s paper on PANS:
Abrupt, dramatic onset of obsessive-compulsive disorder or severely restricted food intake.
Concurrent presence of additional neuropsychiatric symptoms, with similarly severe and acute onset, from at least two of the following seven categories: Anxiety Emotional lability and/or depression, Irritability, aggression and/or severely oppositional behaviors, Behavioral (developmental) regression, Deterioration in school performance, Sensory or motor abnormalities, Somatic signs and symptoms, including sleep disturbances, enuresis or urinary frequency
Symptoms are not better explained by a known neurologic or medical disorder, such as Sydenham’s chorea, systemic lupus erythematosus, Tourette disorder or others.
PANDAS CRITERIA
The hallmark trait for PANDAS is sudden acute and debilitating onset of intense anxiety and mood lability accompanied by Obsessive Compulsive-like issues and/or Tics in association with a streptococcal-A (GABHS) infection that has occurred immediately prior to the symptoms. In some instances, the onset will be 4 to 6 months after a strep infection because the antibiotics did not fully eradicate the bacteria. Many pediatricians do not know the latent variability of strep – Rheumatologists and Streptococcal Experts do.
The acute onset means a Y-BOCS (Yale Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale) score of >20 and or a Chronic Tic Disorder YGTSS (Yale Global Tic Severity Scale) often with multiple tics. Below is the symptom criteria for PANDAS. Additional symptoms may be present.
A clinical diagnosis of PANDAS is defined by the following criteria:
Presence of significant obsessions, compulsions, and/or tics
Abrupt onset of symptoms or a relapsing-remitting course of symptom severity
Interestingly no one asked for evidence of Sydenham’s Chorea, which has been well documented for much longer. Perhaps because it has a very physical presence that is clinically easier to diagnose, especially as the condition progresses to full-blown ataxic movement patterns, as well as the neuropsychiatric symptoms.
In the 1930s, if a doctor saw a patient with chorea, especially if the patient were a child or young woman, it was a reasonable assumption that the diagnosis was Sydenham’s chorea. In western societies today, such a presentation is unlikely to be Sydenham’s chorea and considerable thought must be given to the differential diagnosis. The time course of the chorea is useful diagnostically: most previously healthy children with an acute or subacute chorea have an autoimmune aetiology[17]. Additional causes of childhood choreas include:
Other autoimmune causes, such as seen in systemic lupus erythematosus.
Genetic causes*
Athetoid cerebral palsy.
Drug-induced causes – metoclopramide, phenothiazines and haloperidol are the most important.
Primary and metastatic brain tumours affecting the basal ganglia.
Metabolic – bilirubin encephalopathy and toxins, especially carbon monoxide, manganese and organophosphate poisoning.
*Genetic Causes can include:
Benign hereditary chorea starts in childhood and is a non-progressive chorea. Inheritance is usually autosomal dominant, although rare cases of autosomal-recessive and X-linked inheritance have been reported[18].
Wilson’s disease is an autosomal-recessive disorder of copper metabolism.
Ataxia telangiectasia and other related conditions.
Huntington’s disease presents most often between the ages of 35 years and 45 years but it can be younger, especially if inherited from the paternal line. There is usually but not invariably, a family history. A juvenile form exists that should be seen as a variation of the normal form and not a distinct entity[19].
Read more about one family’s journey through neonatal intensive care and what they have learned about the impact of the sensory environment on the developing nervous system of premature babies in this blog post By Anna Lee Beyer
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