Mental Illness Caused By Infections?

You know those horror movies where someone gets the contagion and begins to act strangely, like the movie "The Happening"? There actually is a big debate about mental illness and infections that cause conditions such as PANDAS and PITAND and make the medical community wonder how many other mental conditions might correlate with other infections.

PANDAS: Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococci.

PITAND: Pediatric Infection-triggered Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders.

Shows up between 5 and 7 years usually. Psychiatric issues associated with it include; OCD, sleep disorder, aggression, tic disorders, Tourette's, hyperactivity, learning disability, hallucinations, eating disorders,and many more. There are treatments including antibiotics and having tonsils and adenoids removed, and IVIG has shown an 80% chance of clearing it up in a short period of time, but insurance companies are not always cooperative with the large cost of the drug.

Interestingly, other issues like fibromyalgia and infections are being looked into and issues like chronic fatigue disorder associated with prior mono infections are being accepted as a correlation.

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