Yes, You Can Catch Insanity: A controversial disease revives the debate about the immune system and mental illness.

Nautilus

Andrew Curry

March 2015

Isak McCune was a happy, healthy 3-year-old boy who suddenly developed vocal tics, tantrums and obsessive thoughts. His parents took him to psychiatrists and doctors and came away with various diagnoses: sensory processing disorder, OCD and ODD. They started Isak on Prozac, but his symptoms seemed to worsen. His parents learned about PANDAS but didn’t think Isak could have it—his strep tests always came back negative. However, they reconsidered after making the connection between his brother’s recurrent strep infections and the onset of Isak’s symptoms. After a pediatric infectious-disease specialist put him on azithromycin (a common antibiotic), Isak’s symptoms resolved within a week.

Read the full article at:https://nautil.us/issue/23/dominoes/yes-you-can-catch-insanity