Pediatric autoimmune neuropsychiatric disorders associated with streptococcal infections: Clinical description of the first 50 cases.

Order of authorship in the original publication: Swedo, Leonard, Garvey.... Pediatric autoimmune neuropsychiatric disorders associated with streptococcal infections (PANDAS), "an hypothesis that there exists a subset of children with rapid onset of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) or tic disorders and these symptoms are caused by group A beta-hemolytic streptococcal (GABHS) infections.^[1] The proposed link between infection and these disorders is that an initial autoimmune reaction to a GABHS infection produces antibodies that interfere with basal ganglia function, causing symptom exacerbations. It has been proposed that this autoimmune response can result in a broad range of neuropsychiatric symptoms.^[2][3] PANDAS is a subset of the pediatric autoimmune neuropsychiatric syndrome (PANS) hypothesis." (Wikipedia aritlce on PANDAS).