New-Onset OCD and Juvenile Enthesitis-Related Arthritis after COVID-19 (Three Cases)
Infections may result in systemic immune activation leading to inflammation. Thus, when patients have an acute neuropsychiatric deterioration (hypothesized to have been triggered by an infection), the situation may warrant evaluation for inflammation in other more accessible sites (e.g., joints). Use of this evidence of inflammation (as a sign of immune activation) is helpful since it is difficult to assess for brain inflammation, as clinical brain imaging has poor sensitivity for inflammation and biopsy of the striatum (and other areas involved in OCD) is difficult and limited by risk. In our cases, early joint imaging not only helped confirm signs of systemic inflammation in the setting of neuropsychiatric symptoms, but it also allowed for earlier initiation of immunomodulatory treatment.
Authors
- Kaitlyn Bauer
- Bahare Farhadian
- Jesse K. Sandberg (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9980-8859)
- Jennifer Frankovich (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7356-5617)
- Paula Tran
- Juliette C. Madan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0542-1368)
- Yuhuan Xie (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6716-1982)
- Cindy Manko
- Meiqian Ma
- Tanya Saini
Institutions
- Dartmouth College (US)
- Dartmouth–Hitchcock Medical Center (US)
- Palo Alto University (US)
- Stanford Health Care (US)
- Dartmouth Psychiatric Research Center (US)
- Palo Alto Institute (US)
- Stanford University (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Developmental Neuroscience
- Published
- 2025-04-02
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1159/000545137
- Citations
- 2
- Primary Topic
- Obsessive-Compulsive Spectrum Disorders
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 4.61
Funders
- Global Lyme Alliance
- Oxnard Foundation
- University of California, San Francisco
- National Institute of Mental Health
- Stanford Maternal and Child Health Research Institute