Measuring clinical outcomes in children with pediatric acute-onset neuropsychiatric syndrome: data from a 2–5 year follow-up study

• Main Authors: Caroline De Visscher, Eva Hesselmark, Daniel Rautio, Ida Gebel Djupedal, Maria Silverberg, Selma Idring Nordström, Eva Serlachius, David Mataix-Cols
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: BMC 2021-10-01
• Series: BMC Psychiatry
• Subjects: PANS; PANDAS; OCD; Tourette; Immunopsychiatry
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-021-03450-5

Abstract Background It is unclear how to best measure the complex symptom presentation of pediatric acute-onset neuropsychiatric syndrome (PANS). Methods Well-characterized participants of a 2–5 year follow-up study (n = 34; 56% male) underwent clinical evaluations and completed scales assessing global symptom severity, functional impairment and specific psychiatric symptoms. We explored inter-correlations between the measures and used intraclass correlation coefficients to evaluate the agreement between clinician-, parent- and child ratings of the same constructs. Results Ratings on symptom-specific measures varied largely between participants. Agreement between informants was excellent on functional scales, fair-to-moderate on global severity scales and mixed on symptom-specific scales. Clinician-rated global and functional measures had stronger inter-correlations with parent- and child-rated functional measures than with symptom-specific measures. Conclusions General instruments assessing global severity and functioning are well suited for the assessment and follow-up of PANS, but should be complemented by symptom-specific scales representative of core symptoms.