[Acute rheumatic fever, Sydenham's chorea and psychopathology]

Acute rheumatic fever (ARF) is an autoimmune disorder that is triggered by group A beta-hemolytic streptococcal infections. ARF consists of several combinations of carditis, polyarthritis and Sydenham's chorea, and rarely seen erythema marginatum and subcutaneous nodules. Sydenham's chorea is seen in about 20% of patients with ARF. As a late symptom of ARF, Sydenham's chorea usually occurs 3 months or longer after the streptococcal infection. Sydenham's chorea is a neuropsychiatric disorder that may present with emotional lability, anxiety, obsessive compulsive symptoms, attention deficit and hyperactivity symptoms or tics. Obsessive-compulsive symptoms occur in 70% of patients with Sydenham's chorea. The role of the autoimmune mechanisms and the dysfunction of the basal ganglia have been demonstrated in Sydenham's chorea. Antibodies against group A beta-hemolytic streptococcus cross-react with basal ganglia. Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococcal Infections (PANDAS) shares the same mechanism with Sydenham's chorea, but PANDAS has not been shown to require penicillin prophylaxis. Thus it is important to distinguish between them. Sydenham's chorea is associated with adulthood OCD, Tourette syndrome and schizophrenia. These features make Sydenham's chorea an explanatory model for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and related disorders. This poststreptococcal disorder provides a treatment opportunity with new therapies like antibiotic therapy, plasma exchange and intravenous immunoglobulin therapy for psychiatric disorders. In this paper we summarize the phenomenological and treatment studies of OCD, attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and tic disorders in subjects with ARF, with or without Sydenham's chorea.