I don't understand why all the lyme disease doctors in NJ show their specialty as Psychiatry. Of course my insurance doesn't cover that specialty. Wouldn't it be more appropriate to be infectious disease doctors or something in that field? Are they listed that way because they don't want to be thought of as non mainstream?
Posted by TF (Member # 14183) on :
No. The doctor's specialty is what he studied and specialized in during medical school, etc.
Then, at some point, the doc either gets lyme himself or a child/spouse gets it and the doc researches lyme for himself and begins to treat lyme.
Even if all of his practice is lyme, his medical specialty is still what he specialized in in school.
So, a lyme specialist can be anything--internist, psychiatrist, neurologist (would be rare) or infectious disease specialist (would be VERY rare).
The official medical specialty that is supposed to treat lyme is infectious disease. However, unfortunately, the ID docs are all adhering to the position of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) which says lyme is RARE and EASILY cured with 2 weeks to 30 days of antibiotics.
Any ID doc who doesn't agree with that stand is genrally kicked out of the Society and shunned by all other ID docs.
If you don't yet know about the long-running medical controversy regarding lyme disease, watch this short video:
A Boston TV station did a show on the lyme disease controversy a few years ago. Here is the Boston Chronicle video on YouTube:
I suggest you watch this video a few times. It explains the lyme disease controversy and the role the IDSA plays in making it difficult for a person to get diagnosed with lyme disease and then get good lyme treatment.
Welcome to LymeNet! We will help you here all we can.
I can give you the name of a very good lyme doctor. His specialty is Family Medicine. He is near Washington, D.C. Not much of a wait to get in. And, he only requires you to come in person once every 3 months. You can do telephone or Skype appointments in the other months.
He got lyme at least 9 years ago and eventually he switched his practice to 100% lyme disease.
He is better than any of the lyme docs in New Jersey.
Posted by hopingandpraying (Member # 9256) on :
Welcome to Lymenet! PM sent for MD & CT.
Stay away from Infectious Disease Doctors (IDSA). They believe one dose of antibiotics is enough and don't believe in chronic Lyme. Here is a link for you to read about "Two Standards of Care":
You need to be evaluated and treated by a Lyme-literate doctor (LLMD). Non LLMDs have no clue about this horrible disease or its complex treatment!
A LLMD is one who has treated Lyme disease and the co-infections which come with it for many years and has gotten patients well. A good one will follow Dr. B's Guidelines, the "gold standard" for Lyme treatment.
Btw - I know you are new to Lymenet, but please break up your posts into 2-3 sentence paragraphs, as there are people on Lymenet who cannot read large blocks of text due to neurological problems from Lyme.
To do this click the pencil/paper icon, make your changes, then click "Edit Post". Thanks.
Posted by Lymetoo (Member # 743) on :
sunny .. Our somewhat old list here has a lot of psychiatrists listed. They are listed just because they are Lyme Literate psychiatrists. They may not actually TREAT lyme, but they are somewhat knowledgeable about Lyme. It's better than going to someone for psych issues who is clueless.
So if someone needs a psych, we have the "safe" ones listed.