08/10/2026
Tomorrow, 9 October, is PANS/PANDAS Awareness Day.
PANS and PANDAS are real medical conditions. Infections such as strep, mycoplasma and other bacterial or viral infections trigger the immune system to attack the brain, and chronic stress can make flares worse. The child changes, sometimes overnight: sudden OCD, intense anxiety and panic, refusing food, tics, rage, mood swings, losing skills they already had, handwriting falling apart, sleep problems, bedwetting, sensitivity to noise, light and textures, and in some cases hallucinations.
If doctors recognise it and treat it early, the child can recover and have a normal childhood. If it’s overlooked and left untreated for years, it leads to severe neuropsychiatric symptoms, and parents watch their children disappear in front of them with no solution and no support from medical professionals.
It’s easily misdiagnosed as OCD, anxiety disorder, schizophrenia, ADHD, autism, eating disorders like anorexia or ARFID, Tourette’s, bipolar disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, depression or even psychosis. Children end up on psychiatric medication for years instead of getting antibiotics and early intervention. Parents are gaslighted by professionals and teachers who don’t recognise the battle these families are going through, and some are even suspected of causing their child’s illness.
In Ireland it’s still seen as controversial, despite being recognised by the WHO in its international classification of diseases (ICD-11). There are still no clinical guidelines here and no simple test. Children are being misdiagnosed and parents are being doubted. That has to change.
If this sounds like a child you love or work with, ask the GP about PANS/PANDAS by name. Push for a full medical check.
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