Psychiatric Care for Children with Autoimmune and Inflammatory Conditions
Dr. Annabel Kuhn is a board-certified psychiatrist who completed her residency at Harvard and her fellowship at Boston Children's Hospital. She provides psychiatric care for children with autoimmune, inflammatory, and post-infectious conditions. This category includes PANS and PANDAS, and it is considerably broader than those diagnoses alone.
Her role is to evaluate and treat the psychiatric symptoms within the child's complete medical context. That means reviewing the timeline of both the medical illness and the psychiatric concerns, including previous evaluations, treatments, and medication changes.
Families often struggle here because the medical and psychiatric sides of the child's condition are addressed separately, leaving no one responsible for integrating the whole picture.
Every family begins with a brief phone conversation before scheduling an evaluation.
Where Dr. Kuhn Fits In
Dr. Kuhn does
- Evaluate and treat psychiatric symptoms in the context of the child's autoimmune or inflammatory illness
- Build a careful timeline of medical and psychiatric events, treatments, and medication changes
- Consider the neuropsychiatric effects of steroids, immunosuppressants, and other treatments
- Work with medical specialists so psychiatric treatment complements rather than conflicts with the medical plan
- Review prior evaluations and laboratory data as part of the psychiatric formulation
Dr. Kuhn does not
- Diagnose or manage autoimmune or inflammatory disease
- Order, direct, or interpret immunological workups
- Prescribe immunotherapy, IVIG, steroids, or antibiotics
- Replace rheumatology, immunology, neurology, or infectious disease
What Families Often Notice
Psychiatric symptoms in autoimmune and inflammatory illness can arise from the disease, from its treatment, from the stress of being ill, or from a separate psychiatric condition. Common concerns include:
Dr. Kuhn's Approach
The evaluation is built around the timeline. Dr. Kuhn spends at least two hours, beginning with a separate 60 minute virtual appointment with parents before meeting the child. In autoimmune and inflammatory illness the sequence is often the diagnostic information: when symptoms started relative to infection, relative to disease flares, relative to starting or stopping steroids or immunosuppressants.
She reviews previous evaluations, treatments, and medication changes, then spends about 60 minutes with the child to deeply understand their persepctve.
Medication effects deserve particular attention here. Corticosteroids and immunosuppressants can produce significant changes in mood, behavior, and cognition, and families are frequently not warned about this. Distinguishing a treatment effect from a disease effect from an independent psychiatric condition changes what should be done next.
Throughout, Dr. Kuhn works with the child's specialists so that psychiatric treatment complements the existing medical plan rather than working against it.
Who Dr. Kuhn Coordinates With
The information needed to understand the psychiatric picture is usually spread across several specialists. With your consent, Dr. Kuhn communicates directly with them.
Frequently Asked Questions
What conditions does this page cover?
Psychiatric care for children with autoimmune, inflammatory, and post-infectious conditions broadly. That includes PANS and PANDAS, and extends well beyond them to rheumatologic disease, inflammatory conditions, autoimmune encephalitis, and neuropsychiatric symptoms following infection. If you are unsure whether your child's condition fits, the ten-minute call is the place to ask.
Does Dr. Kuhn treat the autoimmune condition itself?
No. Dr. Kuhn is a psychiatrist. She does not diagnose or manage autoimmune disease, order immunological workups, or prescribe immunotherapy, IVIG, steroids, or antibiotics. Your child's rheumatologist, immunologist, neurologist, or infectious disease specialist continues to manage the underlying illness while Dr. Kuhn treats the psychiatric symptoms in that context.
My child became a different person on steroids. Is that something you address?
Yes. Corticosteroids can cause significant changes in mood, behavior, sleep, and cognition in children, and families are often not told to expect it. Dr. Kuhn evaluates whether what you are seeing is a medication effect, a disease effect, or a separate psychiatric condition, and communicates with the prescribing specialist so that the two plans work together.
How is this different from the PANS/PANDAS page?
The PANS and PANDAS page covers those specific diagnoses in detail, including Dr. Kuhn's work with the Massachusetts General Hospital Pediatric Neuropsychiatry and Immunology Program. This page covers the broader category of autoimmune, inflammatory, and post-infectious illness, for families whose child's condition does not carry a PANS or PANDAS label.
How do we start?
Every family begins with a brief ten-minute phone call with a parent or caregiver, so you can describe what you need and Dr. Kuhn can confirm her practice is appropriate before you commit to a full evaluation. The evaluation itself begins with a 60 to 90 minute virtual appointment with parents.
Our Location
Brookline, MA 02446
Virtual appointments available throughout Massachusetts
Located on Beacon Street near Coolidge Corner, one mile from Boston Children's Hospital and the Longwood Medical Area.
Start With a 10-Minute Call
Before scheduling an evaluation, Dr. Kuhn speaks with a parent or caregiver by phone for about ten minutes. It is a chance to describe what your child needs, ask about her approach, and decide together whether this practice is the right fit.
Request a Call