Explainer | Pandas – how the condition can drastically change a child’s behaviour. A Hong Kong family shares their story
- When their son had a dramatic change in personality and behaviour, Katy and Ben Chandler sought help for nearly two years before he was diagnosed with Pandas
- Weekly therapy sessions, drugs and supplements helped with symptoms such as OCD, chronic fatigue, ADHD and oppositional defiant disorder
On a family trip to Singapore in October 2018, Katy and Ben Chandler witnessed a stunning change in their eight-year-old son Sam’s behaviour.
Katy had been watching over Sam and his younger siblings at the hotel swimming pool when he underwent a sudden transformation and became an unmanageable and defiant child.
“He was normally a well-behaved and gentle boy,” his mother recalls. Unable to control Sam, she called her husband to help.
Some time later, she would recall that Sam had also developed a facial tic – a sign of a little-known condition called paediatric autoimmune neuropsychiatric disorder associated with streptococcus, or Pandas. Sam would not be formally diagnosed with this condition for nearly two years.
On their return home to Hong Kong, they took Sam to see a psychologist. His behaviour improved for a short time, and they thought the therapy was working.
Sam developed a strep infection on a trip to Japan that Christmas – and his symptoms returned. He became rigid, refusing to eat certain foods – and he was highly emotional and aggressive, lashing out and throwing objects.