New Patient Information

Thank you for your interest in the Stanford Children’s Health Immune Behavioral Health (formerly PANS) Clinic.

As a result of the high volume of patients seeking our clinical services and the limited staff in the PANS clinic, we have created clinical research goals, which we think will expedite finding the causes and treatment pathways for PANS and related conditions, so that in the future, more clinicians and academic centers will be able to provide evidence-based care for patients with this illness.

To accelerate PANS research, only patients who meet the criteria for a PANS clinical observational or interventional study will qualify for entry into our clinic. Patients who are NEW-ONSET, HYPER-ACUTE onset, and UNTREATED will have priority, and their entry into the clinic will be expedited.

As we get more funds to support our clinic and research, we aim to open our clinic to more patients. 

 

For outpatient PANS AND IBH referrals, please have your Child's physician do the following:

1. Complete SCH Referral Request Form

          *Indicate Medically URGENT/PRIORITY if the case is NEW-ONSET                           *Service/Specialty Requested: Immune Behavioral Health/PANS Clinic

2. Include clinical notes (Birth to Present) if records are not in Epic 

3. Include a copy of the patient’s insurance information

4. Submit from the website (linked above), or you can register for Stanford Medicine Children's Health MD Portal (https://mdportal.stanfordchildrens.org) to submit referrals and track appointments online.

5. Please also email the patient’s name/DOB/parents' name and contact number to the IBH Clinic at ImmuneBehavioralHealthClinic@stanfordchildrens.org

Clinic staff may contact the family and solicit an intake questionnaire while the referral is processed.

*Acute-onset, untreated cases will be processed urgently. Please reach out via email ASAP and indicate whether or not you have prescribed medications.*

Proceed with routine psychiatric care and infection management while the patient awaits entry to the clinic.

 

Both our clinical and basic science research programs are focused on identifying the early events leading up to the presentation of PANS, because we believe that understanding the triggers, combined with biochemical and immunological profiles, will inform the development of treatment strategies.

As our program procures more funding, we hope to expand our clinical services and research missions to include children with chronic impairment and comorbidities. Unfortunately, we cannot take on this patient population at this time due to a lack of resources and clinical expertise with regard to these clinical syndromes. We know this particular group of children is suffering the most; thus, we are actively seeking funding to expand our program to include these children. In the future, we hope to hire a behavior medicine specialist to offer clinical services and develop a research agenda around these vulnerable pediatric populations.

We currently accept patients in Northern California (North Coast, the SF Bay Area, Gold Country) and Central California (Central Coast, Central Valley, Sierra Nevada). To qualify for entry into our clinic, the patient must be established with their primary doctor for at least 1 year within this service area.
 
Rarely, we make exceptions to this rule if a patient’s case is: 1) unique/rare and meets the criteria for a funded observational study, or 2) meets the criteria for a funded interventional study. Stanford Children’s Health recognizes the difficulty in securing treatment for children with PANS, as this disorder is quite disabling, and there is a limited number of PANS providers. We are working diligently to expand our ability to care for more children afflicted with PANS.

Existing Patient Information

To schedule a return appointment or speak with your provider, please:

1. Schedule/reach out via the MyChart patient portal

2. Call the IBH Clinic at 650-497-9063

3. Email the IBH Clinic Administrative Staff at ImmuneBehavioralHealthClinic@stanfordchildrens.org

Additional Resources for Patients and Families

We also recommend visiting the following websites, which may be helpful to you: