When a once-thriving child suddenly refuses to eat, develops obsessive fears, or experiences motor tics, parents often describe it as a switch flipping. According to children’s mental health expert Dr. Roseann Capanna-Hodge, these dramatic shifts may have underlying biological causes that are frequently overlooked.
Drawing on more than 30 years of clinical experience and analysis of over 10,000 quantitative EEG brain maps, Dr. Roseann emphasizes that conditions such as Pediatric Acute-onset Neuropsychiatric Syndrome (PANS), PANDAS, Lyme disease, and autoimmune encephalitis can trigger inflammation affecting the brain and nervous system. She will present these insights at NeuroImmune Day, a leading conference on neuroimmune health.
“When a child changes this dramatically, we have to ask a different question,” says Dr. Roseann. “Not simply, ‘What diagnosis fits these symptoms?’ but ‘What changed biologically that caused this child to change so suddenly?’”
Researchers estimate that PANS alone may affect as many as 1 in 200 children, yet many healthcare professionals lack training in recognizing it. Families often spend months or years moving from specialist to specialist before biological factors are explored. Dr. Roseann notes that what appears as anxiety may be neuroinflammation, and defiance may stem from a nervous system locked in survival mode.
Her clinical framework, Regulation First®, positions nervous system regulation as a biological prerequisite for healing. “When the brain and body remain locked in chronic survival mode, healing becomes much more difficult,” she explains. At NeuroImmune Day, she will present on how chronic nervous system activation affects immune function, sleep, gut health, and emotional regulation.
For parents witnessing sudden changes—intense anxiety, obsessive behaviors, motor tics, or severe emotional dysregulation—Dr. Roseann advises not to wait. “Trust what you’re seeing,” she says. “Those changes deserve thoughtful medical evaluation and a conversation with clinicians who understand the connection between the brain, the immune system, and the nervous system.”
Dr. Roseann’s forthcoming book, The Dysregulated Kid: The Parenting Playbook for Helping Your Child Find Calm in a Chaotic World, set for release on September 22, 2026, offers practical tools based on the Regulation First® framework. “Families don’t need more blame or more behavior charts,” she says. “They need practical tools that help them understand what’s happening beneath the surface.”
The conversation at NeuroImmune Day reflects a growing recognition among clinicians that the nervous system, immune system, and brain are interconnected. “When we understand those connections, we open new possibilities for helping children who have remained stuck despite everyone’s best efforts,” Dr. Roseann adds.
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