07/27/2026
Drs. Monarch and Pavone published a powerful editorial in Frontiers in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry last week about hidden etiologies and missed opportunities for recovery. The editorial challenges doctors to look deeper, highlighting a growing body of evidence that severe psychiatric symptoms in children—such as OCD, tics, anxiety, psychosis, bipolar disorder, and even autism-related features—can stem from hidden infections, immune dysfunction, inflammation, gut dysbiosis, or structural brain conditions.
The takeaway: Children can display identical psychiatric symptoms for profoundly different reasons. The future of pediatric psychiatry may depend less on refining diagnostic labels and more on uncovering what lies beneath them.
It's time to look beyond the symptom checklist.
📖 Read the full editorial: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/child-and-adolescent-psychiatry/articles/10.3389/frcha.2026.1889961/full
The connection between infection and psychiatric dysfunction is not new. More than a century ago, clinicians recognized that syphilis could cause psychosis. ...
