Lyme Science Blog

Chronic Lyme disease patients dismissed by medical community In their article, “Medical Gaslighting and Lyme Disease: The Patient Experience,” Fagen and colleagues examine the extensive range of gaslighting techniques experienced by chronic Lyme disease patients.¹ And, explore the demographic variables (i.e., geographic location) that may be associated with higher rates of medical gaslighting. These dismissive […]

Hearing loss – a complication of Lyme disease In their article “Isolated Sudden Bilateral Neurosensory Hearing Loss as a Presentation of Lyme Neuroborreliosis: A Case Study,” Rochd et al. discuss the case of a 23-year-old woman who “presented with a 2-month history of temporal headache, tinnitus, and instability, which was followed by sudden bilateral hearing

Lyme disease causes heart block within one month of infection Lyme carditis syncope episodes indicate severe heart block requiring immediate medical attention. A 26-year-old man who fainted three times overnight was found to have third-degree heart block from a tick bite one month earlier. His case demonstrates how quickly Lyme disease can disseminate from initial

Can pets harbor ticks, even in the winter? In their article, “An analysis of companion animal tick encounters as revealed by photograph-based crowdsourced data,” Kopsco and colleagues found, “The percentage of reports of ticks found on companion animals is more than doubled in the fall and winter seasons from what was reported in the spring and

Borrelia Mayonii: Atypical Lyme Disease in the Midwest Borrelia mayonii is a recently discovered species that causes Lyme disease with atypical features. Since the species was first identified 7 years ago, there have been only 7 reported cases of Lyme disease caused by Borrelia mayonii. In Open Forum Infectious Diseases Correspondence, McGowan and colleagues describe

Lyme disease causes cardiac complications The case involved a 46-year-old man with Lyme disease who presented to the clinic with cardiac complications, which initially manifest as palpitations. The patient lived in a Lyme endemic region and reported that one month earlier, he had a “pinching sensation in his right thigh with an associated macular erythematous

Bartonella Psychiatric Symptoms: Case Reports After 37 years treating Lyme disease, I’ve seen Bartonella psychiatric symptoms include agitation, panic disorder, and treatment-resistant depression. For an overview, see Bartonella. In their 2007 article, “Do Bartonella Infections Cause Agitation, Panic Disorder, and Treatment-Resistant Depression?” Schaller and colleagues describe three patients with acute psychiatric symptoms associated with Bartonella-like

Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever Diagnosis: Clinical Challenges Rocky Mountain spotted fever diagnosis can be challenging, especially with atypical presentations. Rocky Mountain spotted fever has primarily been reported in 5 states in the United States, according to the CDC. These include Missouri, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and North Carolina. However, RMSF has been documented in other states,

Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever Diagnosis: Clinical Challenges In their article “A Longitudinal Study of a Large Clinical Cohort of Patients with Lyme Disease and Tick-Borne Co-Infections Treated with Combination Antibiotics” Xi and colleagues looked at 140 individuals who tested positive for tick-borne infections (TBI) with 33% of those patients infected with multiple TBIs. The authors

Anaplasmosis and Lyme Disease: Cardiac Complications Anaplasmosis and Lyme disease co-infection can lead to serious cardiac complications. Over the last several years, there has been a three-fold increase in the number of anaplasmosis cases in the United States. The tick-borne illness can be transmitted through the bite of an infected blacklegged (deer) tick and causes