Neuropsychiatric and Psychological Symptoms in Patients with Lyme Disease: A Study of 252 Patients

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between neuropsychiatric and psychological symptoms in patients with Lyme borreliosis. We collected data from an experimental group of 252 Lyme disease patients and a control group of 267 healthy individuals. The quality of life and sleep, attention and memory performance were assessed in both groups. Additionally, we investigated depressive symptoms in patients with Lyme disease to examine whether the duration of the disease had an influence on the severity of symptoms shown. Furthermore, various data on the diagnostics and treatment carried out in the patient group were recorded. On average, patients visited almost eight physicians to obtain a diagnosis, and eight years passed between the tick bite and diagnosis (SD ± 7.8); less than half of the sample (46%) received their diagnosis within the first five years after the development of symptoms. It became clear that Lyme disease is often diagnosed very late. It appears that people suffering from Lyme disease have significantly lower quality of life and sleep and show cognitive impairments when it comes to attention and memory. This study shows that 3.1% of Lyme patients were satisfied with their lives and that 37% scored in the lower third of the quality-of-life scale. It was also shown that Lyme patients tend to have depressive symptoms.