LeRoy, N.Y. - Parents of some of the teens with tics tell us they don't think their daughters have Conversion Disorder. That's the diagnosis they've been given by some neurologists who have seen the girls.
Now they are getting a second opinion. Dr. Rosario Trifiletti will travel from his practice in Rockland County to LeRoy this weekend to test the teens.
We spoke to Dr. Trifiletti by phone. He is a Child Neurologist. Dr. Trifiletti says he has treated thousands of children with similar "tourette-like" symptoms.
His diagnosis? Though he hasn't seen or tested these teens, he believes their illnesses may be caused by an infection, which may or may not be strep.
He says while some people have just a fever and malaise with these infections, others can have drastic symptoms, like tics, which appear overnight.
Dr. Trifiletti says the illness used to be known as PANDAS but is now called PAND, because it was determine that strep isn't always the cause of the infection.
The full name for the illness is: Pediatric Acute Autoimmune Neuropsychological Disorders. Here's a link with more information on this illness
www.pandasnetwork.org.
While it isn't contagious, he says it is often linked to an unusual immune response.
He says he will do bloodwork on the LeRoy teens and immune studies, to determine if there is some kind of pattern.
He says some of the teens he has treated have had such severe psychological symptoms, they wind up hospitalized.
Dr. Trifiletti does not believe there is any environmental link the the illnesses. In his words: "I don't know of any environmental toxin that would produce Tourettes symptoms."
He hopes to have some answers for parents in about a week.
