Concurrent Developmental Regression and Neurocognitive Decline in a Child With De Novo CHD8 Gene Mutation.

BACKGROUND: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a heterogeneous neurodevelopmental disorder. Unique ASD subtypes have been proposed based on specific genotype-phenotype combinations. The ASD subtype associated with various chromodomain helicase DNA-binding protein 8 (CHD8) mutations has been associated with an incidence of autistic regression greater than that of all-cause ASD, but the mean age of onset of this subtype remains unknown. METHODS: Here we describe a patient with a known de novo CHD8 gene mutation (heterozygous c.2565del) who experienced a profound developmental regression and neurocognitive decline at age 13 years following periods of acute viral illness. RESULTS: The patient developed treatment-refractory catatonia and self-injurious behaviors leading to marked facial disfigurement. Unfortunately, interventions with immunomodulatory medications, psychotropic medications, and electroconvulsive therapy did not lead to sustained symptom improvement or a full return to baseline. CONCLUSIONS: Our case demonstrates a clinical scenario in which a devastating developmental regression and neurocognitive decline occurred with profound accentuation of previously identified autistic features at an age atypical for autistic regression, following sequential viral infections, thereby raising the question of whether immune dysregulation may be a contributing factor. Regression in patients with monogenic mutations in the CHD8 gene warrants further study to elucidate the mechanisms of illness and the anticipated developmental trajectory.

Pediatric Consultation-Liaison (C-L) Psychiatry Training Pathways.

This perspective piece reviews the current training pathways for pediatric consultation-liaison psychiatry. Significant workforce shortages of child and adolescent psychiatry over the past 3 decades have led to the creation of new training pathways between pediatrics and child and adolescent psychiatry training programs to care for children whose medical and psychiatric management has become increasingly complex. There are now several options available to receive excellent training in pediatric consultation-liaison. Efforts to foster continued interactions and shared education between adult and pediatric consultation-liaison providers are likely to be beneficial to both disciplines given the astonishing advances in technology over the years that have allowed many patients with complex childhood medical disorders to survive into adulthood today.

Addressing the Pediatric Mental Health Crisis in Emergency Departments in the US: Findings of a National Pediatric Boarding Consensus Panel.

BACKGROUND: In 2021, several professional organizations declared a national state of emergency in child and adolescent mental health. Rising volume and acuity of pediatric mental health emergencies, coupled with reduced access to inpatient psychiatric care, has caused tremendous downstream pressures on EDs resulting in long lengths of stay, or "boarding", for youth awaiting psychiatric admission. Nationally, boarding times are highly heterogeneous, with medical / surgical patients experiencing much shorter boarding times compared to patients with primary mental health needs. There is little guidance on best practices in the care of the pediatric patient with significant mental health need "boarding" in the hospital setting. OBJECTIVE: There is a significant increase in the practice of "boarding" pediatric patients within emergency departments and inpatient medical floors while awaiting psychiatric admission. This study aims to provide consensus guidelines for the clinical care of this population. METHODS: Twenty-three panel participants of fifty-five initial participants (response rate 41.8%) committed to completing four successive rounds of questioning using Delphi consensus gathering methodology. Most (70%) were child psychiatrists and represented 17 health systems. RESULTS: Thirteen participants (56%) recommended maintaining boarded patients in the emergency department, while 78% indicated a temporal limit on boarding in the emergency department should prompt transfer to an inpatient pediatric floor. Of this group, 65% recommended a 24-hour threshold. Most participants (87%) recommended not caring for pediatric patients in the same space as adults. There was unanimous agreement that emergency medicine or hospitalists maintain primary ownership of patient care, while 91% agreed that child psychiatry should maintain a consultative role. Access to social work was deemed most important for staffing, followed by behavioral health nursing, psychiatrists, child life, rehabilitative services, and lastly, learning specialists. There was unanimous consensus that daily evaluation is necessary with 79% indicating vitals should be obtained every 12 hours. All agreed that if a child psychiatric provider is not available on-site, a virtual consultation is sufficient to provide mental health assessment. CONCLUSIONS: This study highlights findings of the first national consensus panel regarding the care of youth boarding in hospital-based settings and provides promising beginnings to standardizing clinical practice while informing future research efforts.

The Emotional and Personal Experiences of the COVID-19 Illness During the Early Pandemic: A Qualitative Study.

BACKGROUND: Several studies report the incidence of psychiatric symptoms and disorders among patients who recovered from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19); however, little is known about the emotional impact of acute COVID-19 illness and recovery on these survivors. Qualitative methods are ideal for understanding the psychological impact of a novel illness. OBJECTIVE: To describe the emotional experience of the acute COVID-19 illness and recovery in patients who contracted the virus during the early months of the pandemic. METHODS: Semi-structured interviews conducted by consultation-liaison (C-L) psychiatrists were used to elicit participant responses about the emotional impact of the acute and recovery phases of the COVID-19 illness. Participants recruited from the Maryland, District of Columbia, and Virginia area were interviewed which was audio recorded between June 2020 and December 2020. The research team extracted qualitative themes from the recordings using the principles of thematic analysis. RESULTS: One hundred and one COVID-19 survivors (54 women; mean [SD] age, 50 [14.7] years) were interviewed at a mean of 5.16 months after their acute illness, and their responses were audio-recorded. Most participants were White (77%), non-Hispanic/Latino (86.1%), and not hospitalized for COVID-19 (87.1%). Coders identified 26 themes from participant responses. The most frequently coded themes included anxiety/worry (49), uncertainty (37), supportfrom others (35), alone/isolation (32), and positive reframe/positive emotions (32). CONCLUSIONS: Survivors who contracted severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 during the early months of the pandemic described both negative and positive valence emotions. They experienced emotional distress and psychosocial stressors associated with the acute illness and recovery but also drew upon personal resiliency to cope. This report highlights the utility of qualitative research methods in identifying emotional responses to a novel illness that may otherwise go unnoted. Consultation-liaison psychiatrists may be uniquely positioned to work in collaboration with medical colleagues in developing a multidimensional approach to evaluating an emerging illness.

Psychiatric Phenotypes of Pediatric Patients With Seropositive Autoimmune Encephalitis.

OBJECTIVES: Patients with autoimmune encephalitis (AE) often present with symptoms that are broadly characterized as psychiatric or behavioral, yet little attention is given to the precise symptomatology observed. We sought to more fully define the psychiatric symptoms observed in patients with anti-N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR), anti-glutamic-acid-decarboxylase 65 (GAD65), and anti-voltage-gated-potassium-channel complex (VGKC) antibody-mediated AE using the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition nomenclature. METHODS: We present a case series (n = 25) using a retrospective chart review of 225 patients evaluated for AE in a tertiary care academic medical center between 2014 and 2018. The included patients were ≤18 years old with anti-NMDAR AE (n = 13), anti-GAD65 AE (n = 7), or anti-VGKC AE (n = 5). The frequency of neuropsychiatric symptoms present at the onset of illness and time to diagnosis were compared across groups. RESULTS: Psychiatric symptoms were seen in 92% of patients in our cohort. Depressive features (72%), personality change (64%), psychosis (48%), and catatonia (32%) were the most common psychiatric symptoms exhibited. On average, patients experienced impairment in ≥4 of 7 symptom domains. No patients had isolated psychiatric symptoms. The average times to diagnosis were 1.7, 15.5, and 12.4 months for anti-NMDAR AE, anti-GAD65 AE, and anti-VGKC AE, respectively (P < .001). CONCLUSIONS: The psychiatric phenotype of AE in children is highly heterogenous. Involving psychiatry consultation services can be helpful in differentiating features of psychosis and catatonia, which may otherwise be misidentified. Patients presenting with psychiatric symptoms along with impairments in other domains should prompt a workup for AE, including testing for all known antineuronal antibodies.

Adaptations Made to Pediatric Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry Service Delivery During the Early Months of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A North American Multisite Survey.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic led to rapid changes in clinical service delivery across hospital systems nationally. Local realities and resources were key driving factors impacting workflow changes, including for pediatric consultation-liaison psychiatry service (PCLPS) providers. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to describe the early changes implemented by 22 PCLPSs from the United States and Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic. Understanding similarities and differences in adaptations made to PCLPS care delivery can inform best practices and future models of care. METHODS: A 20-point survey relating to PCLPS changes during the COVID-19 pandemic was sent to professional listservs. Baseline hospital demographics, hospital and PCLPS workflow changes, and PCLPS experience were collected from March 20 to April 28, 2020, and from August 18 to September 10, 2020. Qualitative data were collected from responding sites. An exploratory thematic analysis approach was used to analyze the qualitative data that were not dependent on predetermined coding themes. Descriptive statistics were calculated using Microsoft Excel. RESULTS: Twenty-two academic hospitals in the United States and Canada responded to the survey, with an average of 303 beds/hospital. Most respondents (18/22) were children's hospitals. Despite differences in regional impact of COVID-19 and resource availability, there was significant overlap in respondent experiences. Restricted visitation to one caregiver, use of virtual rounding, ongoing trainee involvement, and an overall low number of COVID-positive pediatric patients were common. While there was variability in PCLPS care delivery occurring virtually versus in person, all respondents maintained some level of on-site presence. Technological limitations and pediatric provider preference led to increased on-site presence. CONCLUSIONS: To our knowledge, this is the first multicenter study exploring pandemic-related PCLPS changes in North America. Findings of this study demonstrate that PCLPSs rapidly adapted to COVID-19 realities. Common themes emerged that may serve as a model for future practice. However, important gaps in understanding their effectiveness and acceptability need to be addressed. This multisite survey highlights the importance of establishing consensus through national professional organizations to inform provider and hospital practices.

Developing Consensus in the Assessment and Treatment Pathways for Autoimmune Encephalitis in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

Children with a diagnosis of Autoimmune Encephalitis (AE) frequently require multi-disciplinary care in order to mobilize the assessment and treatment necessary for recovery. Institutional and provider practice differences often influence the diagnostic workup and treatment pathways made available to patients. There are a variety of provider coalitions in pediatric rheumatology, internal medicine, and neurology that have been making meaningful progress toward the development of consensus in assessment and treatment approaches to patient care. However, child psychiatry is currently underrepresented in this work in spite of the high psychiatric symptom burden seen in some young patients. The need for consensus is often made visible only with inter-institutional dialogue regarding patient care trajectories. We aim to review key updates in the assessment and treatment of children and adolescents with autoimmune encephalitis during the acute phase, with or without catatonia, and to outline provider perspectives by comparing current treatment models in the United States, Canada, and Europe.

Evaluation of Diagnostic Criteria for Hashimoto Encephalopathy Among Children and Adolescents.

BACKGROUND: The recently proposed adult diagnostic criteria for the Hashimoto encephalopathy (HE) include a requirement of subclinical or mild thyroid disease. However, most reports indicate that most children treated for HE do not have evidence of thyroid disease. We aim to evaluate the impact of applying the current adult diagnostic criteria to pediatric patients. METHODS: Pediatric patients with HE were evaluated at time of symptom onset and follow-up at least 1 year after initiation of immunomodulatory treatment for degree of impairment within the neuropsychiatric domains of cognition, language, psychiatric disturbance, seizure, movement disorder, sleep disruption, and overall functionality. We compared the response to treatment among patients stratified by the presence or absence of subclinical or mild thyroid disease using the Modified Rankin Scale, the Liverpool Outcome Score, and a novel multidomain scale designed for the population with pediatric autoimmune brain disorders. RESULTS: Of 17 pediatric patients treated for HE, 6 met full adult diagnostic criteria, whereas 11 patients did not meet criteria solely owing to the absence of thyroid disease. Using our novel scale, the 6 patients meeting full criteria had statistically significant improvement from time of onset of disease to follow-up in the domain of cognition. The 11 patients who did not meet full criteria based on their absence of thyroid disease exhibited statistically significant improvement from time of onset of disease to follow-up in the domains of cognition, language, psychiatric disturbance, movement, and sleep. CONCLUSIONS: Rigidly applying the current diagnostic criteria to pediatric patients with suspected HE may result in the failure to treat potential responders. We propose a set of diagnostic criteria for HE in children, which does not require thyroid disease but include abrupt onset cognitive regression with deficits in one or more other neuropsychiatric domains in the setting of antithyroid antibodies.

Evaluation and Management of Autoimmune Encephalitis: A Clinical Overview for the Practicing Child Psychiatrist.

Medical conditions that present with psychiatric symptoms are becoming increasingly well-recognized in response to the emergence of the field of neuroimmunology. As the availability of testing for novel antineuronal antibodies has increased, so too has the clinical awareness of this diagnostic spectrum. Psychiatrists may have little exposure to this area of expertise, yet may be called on to assist in the diagnosis and treatment of patients with complex neuropsychiatric syndromes secondary to autoimmune encephalitis. This article summarizes the evaluation and management of patients with autoimmune encephalitis and describes emerging patterns in phenotype recognition.