Benjamin* was a 6 y/o boy who PTC with symptoms of rage, aggressive behavior, anxiety, bedwetting, and decline in cognitive and handwriting skills. Benjamin’s symptoms occurred suddenly and were very intense in nature. His mother reported that Benjamin had always been a pretty fearless, intelligent, and sweet child, but that over the past few months there had been a dramatic change in his behavior. He was now experiencing rage and daily meltdowns that were accompanied with aggressive behaviors of hitting, kicking, scratching, and biting. He was also now experiencing intense separation anxiety from his mother and constantly had to be with her at all times. He also developed a new fear of the dark, started wetting the bed at night, and became very restricted in his eating. He started to decline in his cognitive and fine motor skills and showed a regression in his reading and hand writing.
After taking a thorough clinical history, Benjamin was diagnosed with PANDAS. PANDAS stands for Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococcal Infection. PANDAS is a neuro-inflammatory condition that causes symptoms of emotional lability, anxiety, OCD, tics, restricted eating, urinary accidents, and a regression in handwriting and other fine motor skills.
Benjamin’s homeopathic case was taken and stramonium 30c was prescribed for his symptoms of rage, aggressive behavior, dilated pupils, fears, separation anxiety, and restricted eating. Homeopathic treatment is a very individualized form of treatment that treats the unique manifestation of a disease in each person. This individualized approach to treatment is especially important when treating PANDAS as this disorder manifests much differently in each child, and unfortunately many other treatments for PANDAS (natural or conventional) are not “one-size fits all.” Many children with PANDAS are also very sensitive to medications and supplements, and because of this cannot tolerate many other forms of treatment. The benefit of homeopathic treatment is that it is safe, gentle, and effective at treating PANS or PANDAS, even in sensitive children. Homeopathic treatment stimulates a deeper healing in the body, which can also lessen a child’s sensitivity, allowing easier implementation of dietary, supplemental, and medication interventions. Homeopathic treatment also works to treat a child’s susceptibility to having a disorder like PANS or PANDAS, which ultimately helps lead to a complete resolution of symptoms and resilience!
At Benjamin’s first follow up appointment, his mother reported an improvement in his emotional lability, decreased rage, decreased anxiety and fear, and less restrictive eating and urinary accidents. Because of this improvement, we continued his homeopathic treatment and then implemented additional nutritional supplementation and dietary changes. Omega-3 fatty acids were added to help decrease neuroinflammation, probiotics were recommended to improve gut and immune health, quercitin and nettle leaf were recommended to decrease his histamine response, and vitamin D supplementation was recommended to address his deficiency and help with immune modulation.
Benjamin continued to show improvement in all of his symptoms with continued treatment. After two years of treatment, he has been symptom free for several months and has returned to his happy, anxiety-free self!
*Name has been changed for patient confidentiality.