PANS & PANDAS Treatment

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PANS & PANDAS Treatment

URL slug: /pans-pandas Meta title: PANS & PANDAS Treatment in Central Texas | Rooted Health Clinic Meta description: Specialized PANS and PANDAS treatment for children in Salado, TX. Root-cause approach addressing infection, inflammation, and immune dysfunction. One of few providers in Central Texas. Target keywords: PANS PANDAS treatment Texas, PANDAS doctor Central Texas, PANS treatment Salado TX, pediatric autoimmune neuropsychiatric disorder Texas, PANDAS specialist near me

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When Your Child Changes Overnight

One day your kid is fine. The next day, they're a completely different person. Sudden OCD. Explosive rage out of nowhere. Crippling anxiety in a kid who's never been anxious. Tics. Bed-wetting in a child who's been dry for years. Handwriting that falls apart overnight.

You know something is wrong. Your pediatrician says it's "just anxiety" or "a phase." You've Googled yourself into a spiral and landed on PANS/PANDAS. And now you can't find a PANS/PANDAS specialist near you who actually treats it.

We do. Families drive to our clinic from Temple, Killeen, Austin, Waco, and across Central Texas — one of the few providers in the region treating PANS/PANDAS as the immune-driven condition it is.

I had a mom bring her 8-year-old in a few months ago. Three weeks earlier, he'd been a totally normal kid. Then he got strep. And within days, he was having full-blown panic attacks, refusing to eat, and washing his hands until they bled. His pediatrician said it was anxiety and referred him to a therapist. The therapist was great, but therapy doesn't address the immune system attacking the brain.

That's what PANS/PANDAS actually is.

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What's Actually Happening

PANDAS — Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococcal Infections — and PANS — Pediatric Acute-onset Neuropsychiatric Syndrome — are conditions where an infection or environmental trigger causes the immune system to attack the brain. Specifically the basal ganglia.

Here's the mechanism: the immune system mounts a response to an infection — strep is the classic one, but it's not the only trigger. In some kids, the antibodies meant for the pathogen cross-react with brain tissue. The immune system can't tell the difference. So it attacks both. The result is sudden, dramatic changes in behavior, mood, and neurological function.

What parents typically see:

• Sudden onset OCD — obsessive thoughts, compulsive behaviors that appear out of nowhere

• Severe anxiety or panic attacks in a previously calm child

• Emotional explosions — rage, crying, mood swings that don't make sense

• Tics — motor or vocal

• Regression — baby talk, bed-wetting, clinginess in a kid who was past all of that

• Handwriting falling apart

• Food restriction or sudden eating changes

• Sleep completely disrupted

• Brain fog, difficulty concentrating

• New sensory sensitivities

The key word is sudden. This isn't a gradual onset. Parents can usually pinpoint the week — sometimes the day — when everything changed.

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Why Most Doctors Miss It

PANS/PANDAS falls in a gap between specialties. Pediatricians see "behavioral problems." Psychiatrists see "anxiety" or "OCD." Neurologists see "tics." Nobody connects the dots to the strep infection three weeks ago, the mold exposure, or the immune dysfunction driving the whole thing. That's why families throughout Central Texas come to us — we connect the dots.

I don't love giving kids psychiatric medication for a problem that's fundamentally immunological. Not that therapy and psychiatric support don't have a role — they absolutely do. But if the immune system is attacking the brain and all we're doing is managing the downstream behavioral symptoms, we haven't addressed anything. We've just made it more tolerable while the underlying problem continues.

My background in occupational and environmental medicine alongside functional medicine is actually a big part of why I'm able to connect these dots. Infections, immune function, environmental exposures, gut health, inflammation — these all live in my wheelhouse.

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How I Approach This

Step 1: Start with the foundation.

Same place I start with every patient. We run baseline metabolic markers and an expanded thyroid panel — fasting insulin, glucose, lipids, free T3, free T4, total T3, total T4, TSH. In kids with PANS/PANDAS, metabolic and thyroid dysfunction can be layered on top of the immune problem, and I want to see the full picture.

We also check a CBC with differential, basic inflammatory markers, and an ASO titer to start. But I'm not running fifty labs on a scared kid on day one. We try not to hammer patients — especially pediatric patients — with a thousand dollars in labs instantaneously. We start with what's most likely to be informative and go from there.

Step 2: If the baseline confirms immune activation, we go deeper.

Comprehensive infectious panels — not just ASO. Mycoplasma, Lyme and co-infections if indicated, viral titers. Immune markers to characterize the type of dysregulation. Inflammatory markers — CRP, ESR, complement levels. Gut health assessment, because the gut-immune connection in these kids is significant. Nutrient status — iron, ferritin, vitamin D, zinc — all of which impact immune function.

Step 3: Identify and treat the trigger.

Strep is the classic trigger, but it's not the only one. Mycoplasma is huge and often missed. Mold exposure can drive PANS without any bacterial infection at all. Viral triggers. Even food sensitivities creating chronic immune activation.

We find the trigger and address it. Sometimes that's antimicrobial treatment. Sometimes it's environmental remediation. Sometimes it's both.

Step 4: Calm the immune response.

This is the critical piece. We use evidence-based approaches to modulate the immune system and reduce the autoimmune attack on the brain. Anti-inflammatory protocols, targeted supplementation — omega-3s, vitamin D optimization, gut healing — and when appropriate, pharmaceutical interventions. LDN can be useful here for immune modulation. In severe cases, we may use short-course anti-inflammatory medications.

Step 5: Heal the terrain and build resilience.

Once the acute phase is stabilized, we shift to long-term terrain work. Gut health restoration. Nutrient optimization. Reducing environmental triggers. Building immune resilience so the system doesn't fall apart with every exposure.

Step 6: Long-term management.

PANS/PANDAS can flare. Every parent needs to know that. We build a plan for monitoring, prevention, and rapid response when triggers reappear. Early intervention during a flare is dramatically more effective than waiting until the child is in full crisis.

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Why Families Drive Hours to See Us

There are very few providers in Central Texas — or Texas in general — who understand and treat PANS/PANDAS. Most families are told their child needs more therapy or more psychiatric medication. And while both can be part of the picture, they don't address the underlying immune dysfunction driving the symptoms.

We regularly see families from Austin, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and beyond. When your child changes overnight and nobody can tell you why, you drive wherever you need to.

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What to Expect

First visit: A thorough conversation with the family. I want the full timeline — when symptoms started, what preceded them, what's been tried. We order baseline labs and schedule a follow-up to review them together.

Follow-up: Lab review, treatment plan. I explain everything — what we found, what it means, what we're going to do about it, and what to watch for.

Ongoing care: These kids need close monitoring. Frequent check-ins, lab rechecks, treatment adjustments. Membership is designed for exactly this kind of care — unlimited access, direct messaging, and the ability to reach me quickly when things change.

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Pricing

| Service | Cost | |---------|------| | Pediatric Membership (0-17) | $185/month | | Lab work | Ordered through affordable direct labs |

Membership includes office visits as needed, direct access to me via Spruce messaging, and comprehensive care coordination. For complex PANS/PANDAS cases, this is essential — these kids need the kind of access and attention that a 7-minute insurance visit can't provide.

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Your Child Deserves Answers

If your child's behavior changed suddenly and nobody can explain why — if you're being told it's "just anxiety" when you know in your gut something else is going on — call us. We've seen it. We understand it. We treat it.

📞 Call: 254-780-0023 📍 Visit: 1401 N Stagecoach Rd, Salado, TX 76571 🌐 Book Online: rootedhealthclinic.com/book-online

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Rooted Health Clinic serves families in Salado, Temple, Belton, Killeen, Georgetown, Round Rock, Austin, and throughout Central Texas. We regularly see patients who travel from across the state for PANS/PANDAS care.