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Prognosis: Prolonged Use of Antibiotics After Lyme May Not Help
By ERIC NAGOURNEY Published: May 29, 2007
People who have had Lyme disease sometimes have symptoms long after the illness seems to have been cured. To ease their discomfort, some doctors prescribe antibiotics for months or even years.
But a new report finds no evidence that extending antibiotic treatment past the time it takes to cure Lyme disease does any good.
The report, which appears online in the journal Neurology, also took a look at the course of medications generally used for patients in whom Lyme disease has affected the nervous system, about 15 percent of everyone infected. The authors, led by Dr. John J. Halperin, found the approaches highly effective.
People who continue to have symptoms after treatment are often said to be suffering from post-Lyme syndrome. They may experience muscle and bone pain, fatigue and mood problems -- even though tests find no sign of a systemic infection.
There is some debate, the report said, over whether the problem is caused by Lyme organisms so hidden away in the body that drugs do not reach them, or whether it may be a form of chronic fatigue syndrome.
Not only do prolonged courses of antibiotics appear to do no good, the report said, they pose some risk because of possible side effects.
"Illnesses, hover constantly above us, their seed blown by the winds, but they do not set in the terrain unless the terrain is ready to receive them."---Claude Bernard. Posts: 131 | From US | Registered: Dec 2006
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"Illnesses, hover constantly above us, their seed blown by the winds, but they do not set in the terrain unless the terrain is ready to receive them."---Claude Bernard. Posts: 131 | From US | Registered: Dec 2006
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Check out Snapcrackle's post in Activism, "Former EIS Officers' Campaign Against Chronic Lyme" for some info about a NYT science editor.
Posts: 13116 | From San Francisco | Registered: May 2006
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