New study attributes British naturalist’s persistent poor health to tick-borne disease
Smithsonian magazine - Jan. 8, 2019
[my note, here, not from the article] Sadly, they seem to focus on his panic attacks and his tendency toward hypochondria (yep, he got that label while alive) as well as what we now call agoraphobia - without really saying that lyme can create those false / misleading diagnostic labels and they all make perfect sense.
More detail in the original article from - and while I still have more to read, they seem to be big on the DSM psychiatrist labels, too.
My eyes can't read more now but I sure hope they clearly state somewhere that those labels can be dangerously misapplied in such cases of infections that cause the symptoms.
Online Journal of the Natural History Museum Rotterdam (Holland)
‘Many bad attacks of sickness’ – Did Charles Darwin suffer from chronic borreliosis?
Published 28 December 2018
7-page pdf - abstract and full article that includes some of Darwin's own observations.
The typset and spacing in this article make it really hard to read. So far, I was able to capture this for now.
Excerpt, p. 2, column 2:
Many of Darwin’s own observations concern symptoms of
dysautonomia
as commonly experienced by patients having a panic attack as a symptom of panic disorder (APA 2013).
Panic disorder criteria as stated in Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5; APA 2013) are:
“air fatigue” (breathlessness or the inability to take a deep breadth or sigh, sensations of shortness of breadth or smothering);
“treading on air and vision” (derealisation, depersonalization); “fear of dying”;
“faint sensations” (feeling dizzy, unsteady, lightheaded, or faint);
“involuntary twitching of the muscle” (trembling and shaking of muscles);
“uncomfortable palpitations of the heart” (palpitations, accelerated heart rate);
“head swimming” (vertigo, dizziness);
“hands trembling”;
“numbness” (paresthesias),
“ringing in the ear” (tinnitis).
Based on these mostly dysautonomic symptoms, Barloon & Noyes (1997) suggested that Darwin’s
symptoms indicate panic disorder with agoraphobia, which seems an attractive and
(moves to top of next page)
reasonable hypothesis.
Adler (1997) however, stated that the case for agoraphobia is overstated, as “Darwin rode until he was 60 years old, attended many meetings of the British Association, and mixed widely among pigeon fanciers in their numerous London clubs”.
Colp (1997) commented on the article by Barloon & Noyes (1997) by mentioning that Darwin was “away from home for about 2000 days between 1842 and his death in 1882”,
making a diagnosis of agoraphobia not very realistic.
We have to find another cause than panic disorder with agoraphobia.
Cases of atypical panic attacks are described to be neurologic/psychiatric manifestations of chronic (neuro)borreliosis . . . .
(full article at link above) -
[ 01-09-2019, 12:35 PM: Message edited by: Keebler ]
Posted by Keebler (Member # 12673) on :
- As I read bit by bit, in the journal article, page 3, so glad to see them quote superb LL expert, Virginia Sherr. Her work is excellent.
I wish I could read this in all one sitting - yet feel compared to share along the way as it's rare any article actually has the proper view or speaks with the real experts in their research.
As the original work has a copyright and in post above I may have already excerpted so much & should not copy & paste more, here's that journal link again: