The prevalence of Lyme disease and associated co-infections in people with a chronic post-concussive syndrome.

by | CIRS, Functional & Integrative Medicine, ISEAI, Lyme Disease & Atypical Infections, Neurodegeneration & Brain Health

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31488744

Comment; Interesting, valid study demonstrating that there’s a correlation with folks who have had a concussion with poor response to therapy also having had exposure to Lyme, suggesting neuroborreliosis. Recall that lab studies for Lyme are unreliable with more false-negatives than false-positives. This implies that there are probably more such patients than the study identifies.

Azzolino S1, Zaman R, Hankir A, Carrick FR.

Author information

1Department of Neurology, Carrick Institute, Cape Canaveral, FL, USA, sergioazzolino@gmail.com.

Abstract

INTRODUCTION:

There is increasing awareness that Lyme borreliosis (LB) and traumatic brain injury (TBI) may cause mental health symptoms. TBI and Lyme disease compromise the health and activities of millions of patients per year. The chronic symptoms and disability of TBI and Lyme disease share a similar clinical presentation. We have identified an alarming number of individuals suffering from post-concussion syndrome (PCS) that are refractory to care and that have serologically tested positive for Lyme disease.

SUBJECTS AND METHODS:

A single-center retrospective review of patient charts that were symptomatic a minimum of one year after a TBI that were tested for Lyme disease to ascertain if there was a relationship.

RESULTS:

217 PCS patient records (93 females with a mean age of 34 years, 120 males with a mean age of 40 years and 4 individuals with unknown gender) were included in the review. 38% had a positive Western Blot Igenex IgM. There was a statistically significant relationship of a positive Western Blot Igenex IGM predicting chronic PCS Pearson χ2(1)=6.8866, P=0.009, Fisher’s exact score p=0.015 and φ=0.2813 representing a moderate effect size.

CONCLUSIONS:

Long term PCS over one year’s duration is associated with undiagnosed Lyme disease. There was statistical and substantive significance between individuals with chronic PCS having a positive Western Blot Igenex IgM. Males were more likely to have a positive Western Blot Igenex IgM than females.

Dr. Raymond Oenbrink
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