Moleculera Labs Educational Series:

Case report: SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 Associated Pediatric Acute-onset Neuropsychiatric Syndrome: A Case Report of Female Twin Adolescents

SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 Associated Pediatric Acute-onset Neuropsychiatric Syndrome

“To our knowledge, this is the first case report of twin adolescents with COVID-19-associated PANS.” 1

“Dizygotic twin sisters in late teens, with abrupt and acute onset of severely restrictive food intake, weight loss, OCD, anxiety with intermittent auditory and visual hallucinations, depression, attention deficit, and sleep disturbances, simultaneously accompanied by milder neurologic symptoms such as hand tremor, tinnitus, dizziness, headache, and weakness of proximal muscles [were admitted to a psychiatric unit].”

“As seen in this case, when a child presents with other potential causes for neuropsychiatric symptoms also consisting of PANS, clinicians should consider SARS-CoV-2 as a potential agent, even in asymptomatic patients or with mild respiratory symptoms.”

“The only relevant agent underlying those neuropsychiatric and somatic complaints was COVID-19, and it was validated with laboratory testing…”

“Treatment options consisted of psychotropic agents, antibiotics, antiepileptic, and intravenous immunoglobulin transfusion finely treated the neuropsychiatric symptoms.”

  1. Ayşegül Efe, SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 associated pediatric acute-onset neuropsychiatric syndrome a case report of female twin adolescents, Psychiatry Research Case Reports, Volume 1, Issue 2, 2022, 100074, ISSN 2773-0212, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psycr.2022.100074.
  2. Trifiletti R, Lachman HM, Manusama O, Zheng D, Spalice A, Chiurazzi P, Schornagel A, Serban AM, van Wijck R, Cunningham JL, Swagemakers S, van der Spek PJ. Identification of ultra-rare genetic variants in pediatric acute onset neuropsychiatric syndrome (PANS) by exome and whole genome sequencing. Sci Rep. 2022 Jun 30;12(1):11106. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-15279-3. PMID: 35773312; PMCID: PMC9246359.
  3. Ilyas U, Umar Z, Lin D (August 26, 2022) Group A Beta-Hemolytic Streptococcus-Induced Tic-Like Movement Disorder in an Adult: A Case Report. Cureus 14(8): e28451. doi:10.7759/cureus.28451.
  4. Soltani Khaboushan A, Pahlevan-Fallahy M-T, Shobeiri P, Teixeira AL, Rezaei N (2022) Cytokines and chemokines profile in encephalitis patients: A meta-analysis. PLoS ONE 17(9): e0273920. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0273920.