Homeopathic support for Kids with PANS and PANDAS
PANS and PANDAS are serious conditions that hijack a childhood and the family home experience. Homeopathy can help.
If you’re familiar with PANS and PANDAS, you know they are devastating neuropsychiatric conditions that affect children deeply across every spectrum of their lives and are equally devastating for the families of children affected.
PANS - Pediatric Acute-onset Neuropsychiatric Syndrome - is understood to be autoimmune or autoinflammatory in nature and, due to a dysregulated immune response to a non-specific pathogen that could be Lyme, Babesia, Bartonella, to name a few. Importantly, PANS is about how the immune system responds to the pathogen more than the specific pathogen.
PANDAS - Pediatric Acute-onset Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococcus - is similar but with the key distinction that the condition originates with a dysregulated immune response to Strep.
Symptoms of PANS/PANDAS are similar and include[1]:
Presence of OCD behaviors including restricted eating, tics, vocal or physical tics
Anxiety
Emotional lability or depression
Irritability, aggression and/or oppositional behaviors
Developmental regression
Deterioration in school performance
Motor or sensory abnormalities
Somatic signs and symptoms, including sleep disturbances, enuresis, or urinary frequency
All of these symptoms can be mild or severe, are sudden onset, can have a relapsing nature, occur in children, and have no other known cause.
There is much that is not yet understood about PANS and PANDAS. From my clinical and personal experience I believe there are many factors that contribute to health and susceptibility to disease including environmental, diet, lifestyle, medical, genetic, and ancestral factors. And there are typically many factors that contribute to healing. Healing takes years for most PANS and PANDAS kids.
From a homeopathic perspective, there are often many layers of healing and each can require a different remedy. To give one example, a child may be in a very intense neuropsychiatric state where they are so intensely fearful or rageful that they’re not functional in typical settings and can be a risk to family or others. A remedy to support this extremely intense state is of highest need. When that state has rebalanced, the next more important symptom to address might be anxiety about the school setting including school refusal. That could require a second remedy choice. In that way, multiple and sequential remedies may be needed over several years.
In this article, I share some homeopathic remedies that I have found to be especially beneficial during states of extreme and intense emotional symptoms such as rage and panic. These are all very intense states and a well matched homeopathic remedy can support bringing the child back into their body and into a more balanced state. These are by no means the only remedies, and a child with PANS/PANDAS will often need a remedy like those listed below at some point, followed by other remedies at different times in their healing journey.
Aconite - for when a child is in a pure panic state, including heart palpitations, inability to be alone, with an intense fear of death. There is often a strong restlessness due to the fear, and an intense desire for cold drinks.
Belladonna - for when a child has behavior disorders they struggle to control characterized by anger, which can include violence such as hitting or biting, with dilated pupils, red cheeks, and an overall sense of “heat” about them. Symptoms ebb and flow - often multiple times per day - and there is suddenness to the onset of the behavioral changes.
Hyosyamus - for while a child has behavior disorders they cannot seem to control, including rage, accompanied by silly, lewd, jealous, or cursing behaviors. There is often a strong jealousy, often of the mother.
Stramonium - for when a child has behavior disorders they struggle to control, including intense fear of the dark, of death and of being alone. When in this state a child may have wide eyes, be impulsively violent and have a strong fear of monsters. There may be an overall sense that they’re out of their head and body. There may be rage and destructive tendencies as well.
Case study
Julia was a 5 year old girl that suddenly started exhibiting signs of terror including not being able to go into her room or be apart from her mother. She was having rage episodes that included destroying household items, running away while at school, hiding, and climbing on top of furniture. She was expelled from her preschool class due to behaviors. She would not sleep in her room and was sleeping in bed with her parents and would wake multiple times per night in a panic state and unable to go back to sleep. Julia’s grandmother was taking care of Julia in the next room during the appointment because Julia was unable to be alone for any period of time. She’s started having urinary and stool incontinence issues. This was an intense state and was completely out of character for who she’d been for the first 4.5 years of her life. In addition, she showed signs of tics, noise sensitivity, and a loss of independence as she needed the constant reassurance and presence of her mother. Mom had recently quit her job to stay home and take care of Julia.
Julia was prescribed Stramonium 30c in 4 oz water, stirred, then 1 tsp daily.
At the first follow up 3 weeks later, Julia’s mother reported “it feels like she’s getting better”, including fewer daily rage incidents, improvements in anxiety such that she was waking on average 1x/night and was able to go back to sleep. She had gone into her room by herself for the first time in months. Mom also reported a reduction in the OCD tendencies and that Julia’s appetite had improved. Overall, mom reported a sense of increased calm.
Mom was instructed to continue with daily doses of Stramonium 30c as she’d been dosing it.
At her second follow up 4 weeks after that, Mom reported that Julia was able to return to sleeping in her own room and was re-entering her preschool classroom. At this appointment Julia stayed in the other room by herself with no need of a parent or grandparent nearby. Mom reported Julia was having no nighttime wakings. She’d started getting dressed on her own again. Julia’s mom said she was seeing about 1 rage episode per week and they’d started going out to do activities outside of the house again. There were no incidents of running away. Mom said overall she felt like things had improved quite a bit, that she still wasn’t fully back to being “Julia”, but there were huge improvements on mental, emotional, and physical levels.
Mom was instructed to continue with daily doses of Stramonium 30c as she’d been dosing it.
The case continued and eventually a new remedy was needed as the symptoms indicating Stramonium were no longer “loudest” in the case. Julia continues to improve.
To begin your own healing story with homeopathy, contact me at Sue@SueMcKinleyHomeopathy.com. If you know of anyone that may be interested in this natural, holistic, and 100% individualized modality, I appreciate referrals and welcome the opportunity to work with them!
1 - https://www.pandasppn.org/pans/