Did your child’s neuropsychiatric symptoms come on suddenly following an infection? Do you notice that your child’s symptoms suddenly worsen during or just following an infection? Does your child have obsessive-compulsive symptoms or tics? If so, you may be looking at a case of PANDAS (Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorder Associated with Streptococcus).

by:  Nanci Schiman, M.S.W., The Balanced Mind Foundation Parent to Parent Coordinator

by Clare Nugent, and Dorie Geraci, Medication Safety Team Leader

What remedy is there for the teenage girl with bipolar disorder who suffers suicidal depression for several days before each menstrual period? How do bipolar illness and its treatments affect a girl’s sexual feelings, fertility, and unborn children? What can parents do to keep a risk-loving daughter safe as she passes through adolescence? Kerachel Cross (Used by permission)

This is an article by Sheila McDonald, which appeared in The Balanced Mind Foundation's eNews.  Bipolar disorder, also known as manic depressive disorder, is marked by cycles of mania and depression. Many of our children present signs with symptoms of mania and are misdiagnosed with ADHD. On the other hand, many of our children evidence their first signs of the disorder through extreme depression.

by M. Katherine Shear, M.D., Associate Professor of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, Director, Anxiety Disorders Clinic.

Anxiety is a normal part of everyday life. Anxiety acts as a signal which motivates us to improve performance and alerts us to impending dangers. Yet anxiety can get out of hand. When this happens, the normal warning signal mechanism of anxiety becomes a psychiatric symptom.