I was fortunate to be invited to speak at a PANS Conference organized by Inga Talvik, MD, head of the Estonian Pediatric Neurology Society, held at the beautiful child psychiatry facility affiliated with the Children's Hospital of Estonia, Laste Vaimse Tervise Keskus. The conference was held on October 19-20, 2017, and was well attended by child psychiatrists and neurologists from throughout Estonia as well as colleagues Drs. Caroline Gromark and Maria Silverberg Morse from Stockholm. It was fascinating to see that the cases of PANS in Estonia and Sweden were very similar to those in the U.S., and to learn of their research and treatment approaches. I was able to share the recently published Expert Consensus Treatment Guidelines for Youth with PANS as well as some of the Stanford PANS Clinic experience and recently published data regarding NSAIDS and prednisone.
Additionally, I spoke on pediatric bipolar disorder to child psychiatrists at the courtesy of Anna Kleinberg, M.D. the Head of Child Psychiatry there. The facility, Laste Vaimse Tervise Keskus, 2 years new, is beautiful, with inpatient and outpatient areas, all designed carefully, with soothing and pleasing art, color, and wide halls and open spaces. They also have their own gymnasium there, and plenty of space for music therapy, group rooms, and rooms for parent meetings. More importantly, they are able to do extended evaluations where the children stay during the day and go home at night, when appropriate. Dr. Kleinberg was able to get the facility built with hard work and grants from Norway! It was the kind of child psychiatric facility that I would be glad to go to work there every day. I met several of the psychiatrists, therapists, and fellows who worked there and was impressed by their high quality and dedication to pediatric mental health.
Thank you Drs. Kleinberg and Talvik for an excellent meeting and exchange of international knowledge!
