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Finding A Doctor Who Specializes In Tick

Brian Fallon, MD Depression, Suicidal Behaviors, & Lyme: Results from a Nationwide Study in Denmark

We provide contact information for Lyme-treating physicians compiled from various sources, including feedback from patients and information provided by other Lyme disease support groups. Most of the doctors on our list are members of the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society . We will suggest providers located as close to you as our list permits.

Contact us by E-mail at Doctor Request OR call with a detailed message.Note: Please do NOT both send E-mail AND call.If you call, Please REPEAT your phone number and speak SLOWLY.Please understand that the email and telephone voicemail are not continuously monitored, and that both are covered by volunteers. We will try our best to respond within 24 hours.

Disclaimer:We, LymeBasics.org, recommend you work with your current doctor for Lyme disease treatment. However, if you are not satisfied and wish to consider a doctor who has specialized in tick-borne diseases, we provide contact information for Lyme-treating physicians compiled from various sources, including feedback from patients and information provided by other Lyme disease support groups. Most of the doctors on our list are members of the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society .

lymebasics.org, is an all volunteer non-profit 501 that has been serving the Lyme Disease community since 2003.

Lyme Disease Is A Clinical Diagnosis

According to the CDC, a diagnosis of Lyme disease should be based on symptoms. If you have symptoms of Lyme disease you may be infected, even if your blood test is negative.

It can be especially challenging for Coloradans to receive accurate diagnosis and effective treatment for Lyme and potential co-infections. Many Colorado physicians are not experienced at recognizing the many manifestations of Lyme and co-infections. They may not consider Lyme in the differential diagnosis, especially if their patient has not recently travelled to a known endemic area, or if they do not recall a tick bite. The belief that Lyme does not exist in Colorado often inhibits timely diagnosis and treatment for patients regardless of where they may have been exposed.

It is important for Coloradans who are affected by Lyme disease to be aware of the controversy around diagnosis, testing and treatment so they can make informed choices about their health care. Medical professionals both in Colorado and nationwide approach the diagnosis and treatment of Lyme disease in different ways.

Some professionals and institutions believe that a Bulls eye rash, or a CDC surveillance criteria positive blood test must be present to diagnose Lyme disease.

The Chance Of Getting Lyme Disease

Not all ticks in England carry the bacteria that causes Lyme disease.

But it’s still important to be aware of ticks and to safely remove them as soon as possible, just in case.

Ticks that may cause Lyme disease are found all over the UK, but high-risk places include grassy and wooded areas in southern and northern England and the Scottish Highlands.

Ticks are tiny spider-like creatures that live in woods, areas with long grass, and sometimes in urban parks and gardens. They’re found all over the UK.

Ticks do not jump or fly. They attach to the skin of animals or humans that brush past them.

Once a tick bites into the skin, it feeds on blood for a few days before dropping off.

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Clinical Practice Guidelines By The Infectious Diseases Society Of America American Academy Of Neurology And American College Of Rheumatology : 2020 Guidelines For The Prevention Diagnosis And Treatment Of Lyme Disease

Clinical Infectious Diseases, Volume 72, Issue 1, 1 January 2021, Pages e1-e48, 30 November 2020

Paul M Lantos, Jeffrey Rumbaugh, Linda K Bockenstedt, Yngve T Falck-Ytter, Maria E Aguero-Rosenfeld, Paul G Auwaerter, Kelly Baldwin, Raveendhara R Bannuru, Kiran K Belani, William R Bowie, John A Branda, David B Clifford, Francis J DiMario, Jr, John J Halperin, Peter J Krause, Valery Lavergne, Matthew H Liang, H Cody Meissner, Lise E Nigrovic, James J Nocton, Mikala C Osani, Amy A Pruitt, Jane Rips, Lynda E Rosenfeld, Margot L Savoy, Sunil K Sood, Allen C Steere, Franc Strle, Robert Sundel, Jean Tsao, Elizaveta E Vaysbrot, Gary P Wormser, Lawrence S Zemel

For the full document, including complete tables and references, please visit the Oxford University Press website.

A summary guideline for clinicians may be found here.

Dscatt Think Tank Report 8 May 2019 Sydney

Western Blacklegged Ticks &  Pathogens: New Insight

In its response to Recommendation 5 of the Senate Community Affairs References Committee Final Report: Inquiry into the growing evidence of an emerging tick-borne disease that causes a Lyme-like illness for many Australian patients, the Australian Government agreed to consult with key stakeholder groups to develop an evidence-based clinical pathway that can accommodate patient and medical needs.

The DSCATT Think Tank Report summarises the key discussion points and outcomes of a Think Tank held on 8 May 2019 to seek stakeholder input into the development the pathway.

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Clinical Questions And Evidence Review

An initial list of relevant clinical questions for these guidelines was created by the whole panel for review and discussion. The final set of clinical questions was approved by the entire committee. All outcomes of interest were identified a priori and explicitly rated for their relative importance for decision making. Each clinical question was assigned to a pair of panelists.

Evidence summaries for each question were prepared by the technical team from Tufts Medical Center. The risk of bias was assessed by the technical review team using the Cochrane risk of bias tool for randomized controlled trials , the Newcastle-Ottawa scale for nonrandomized studies and QUADAS-2 tool for diagnostic test accuracy studies . The certainty in the evidence was initially determined for each critical and important outcome, and then for each recommendation using the GRADE approach for rating the confidence in the evidence . Evidence profile tables and quality of evidence were reviewed by the guideline methodologists . The summaries of evidence were discussed and reviewed by all committee members and edited as appropriate. The final evidence summaries were presented to the whole panel for deliberation and drafting of recommendations. Literature search strategies, PRISMA flow diagrams detailing the search results, data extraction and evidence profiles tables, and additional data, such as meta-analysis results when appropriate, can be found in the supplementary materials .

Biological Explanations For Chronic Lyme Disease

Several arguments have been made to support the biological plausibility of CLD and to justify its treatment with lengthy courses of antibiotics. One is that B burgdorferilocalizes intracellularly in the infected host, and that the antibiotics typically chosen to treat it do not penetrate cells effectively. Aside from the fact that B burgdorferi predominantly occupies the extracellular matrix, the antibiotics currently recommended to treat Lyme disease are well-established to treat a variety of intracellular infections. For example, doxycycline and azithromycin are first-line drugs for the treatment of Mycoplasma, Chlamydia, and Legionella, and doxycycline is the drug of choice for Rickettsia and related species. Ceftriaxone is effective against Salmonella and Neisseria, both of which are predominantly intracellular amoxicillin is effective against Listeria.

Another commonly voiced argument is that B burgdorferi assumes a round morphology, variously described as cyst forms,spheroplasts,L-forms, and round bodies. These variants are said to be resistant to antibiotic treatment and require alternative antibiotics and dosing strategies. On close review of the literature there is little evidence that these variants arise in vivo in humans, let alone that they are associated with CLD-like symptom complexes or that they require treatment.

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What Our Patients Say

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    3Bit of copy about the practice to walk you through. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.

    4Bit of copy about the practice to walk you through. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.

The Chronic Lyme Disease Controversy

Dismissive Doctors and Lyme Disease.

Chronic Lyme disease is a poorly defined term that describes the attribution of various atypical syndromes to protracted Borrelia burgdorferi infection. These syndromes are atypical for Lyme disease in their lack of the objective clinical abnormalities that are well-recognized in Lyme disease and, in many cases, the absence of serologic evidence of Lyme disease as well as the absence of plausible exposure to the infection. The syndromes usually diagnosed as CLD include chronic pain, fatigue, neurocognitive, and behavioral symptoms, as well as various alternative medical diagnosesmost commonly neurologic and rheumatologic diseases. Perhaps the most recognized and contentious facet of this debate is whether it is effective, appropriate, or even acceptable to treat patients with protracted antibiotic courses based on a clinical diagnosis of CLD.

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Varied Presentations Of Lyme Disease

Lyme is a multi-systemic disease. Lyme may present in a traditional way, with symptoms of joint pain, fevers, and a bulls-eye rash. Lyme disease may also present as emotional difficulties, memory loss, or extreme fatigue, without the presence of joint pain, or a bulls-eye rash. In children, Lyme can mimic ADHD or learning disabilities.

Studies have shown that people with Lyme disease may be misdiagnosedas other diseases including mood and anxiety disorders, heart problems, Lupus, Fibromyalgia, Chronic fatigue syndrome, Arthritis, and more. Some Lyme patients have been referred for psychiatric help. One clue that the cause of symptoms may be due to Lyme disease is that Lyme symptoms will often appear in a cyclical fashion. Every three to four weeks, symptoms may get worse and then return to their original pattern. Women may notice this cycle aligning with menstruation.

It is also important to diagnose co-infections. Ticks may transmit more than one disease in a single bite. Coloradans who remain ill after treatment for Lyme disease may have co-infections such as Anaplasmosis, Babesia, Bartonella, or others that require different or extended treatments.

It is okay to ask your medical practitioner about their training, and how they choose to diagnose and treat Lyme and other tick-borne diseases. It is your right as a patient to be informed that there is controversy regarding diagnosis, testing and treatment for Lyme disease and co-infections.

Risk Factors For Persistent Symptoms After Treatment For Lyme Disease

Patients with the most severe symptoms on clinical presentation are the most likely to have persistent symptoms during convalescence. Severe headache, arthritis, arthralgias, and fatigue at presentation predicted persistent symptoms in a retrospectively examined cohort of 215 patients. In a prospective treatment trial for early Lyme disease, persistent symptoms at several late follow-up visits were more common in patients who had more symptoms, higher symptom scores and multiple erythema migrans lesions. Patients with a longer duration of symptoms may also be at greater risk of persistent symptoms: a review of 38 subjects who had been previously treated for Lyme disease found that persistent somatic and neuropsychological sequelae were strongly associated with prolonged illness before treatment.

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How To Approach Your Non

For various reasons, you may choose to consult with a doctor who doesnt specialize in Lyme disease or other tick-borne diseases.

If so, be sure to be as proactive as possible in providing information that could help in diagnosing your disease, and always feel free to share resources that you find in your own research to prompt discussions about any aspect of your diagnosis or treatment, including more advanced testing options.

If your doctor does not believe Lyme disease exists, reach out to another doctor for a second opinion.

Want To Find A Blood Draw Site? Use Our Tool Here.

Treatment Starts With Accurate Diagnosis

New Study: Persistent Symptoms After Early Diagnosis ...

The only way to get the proper treatment for your tick-borne disease is to get the right diagnosis in the first place and one of the best ways to do that is, if possible, to see a physician whos experienced with tick-borne diseases. Accurate diagnosis also requires high quality testing at a reputable lab. Learn more about why doctors and patients trust the tests offered by IGeneX.

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Horowitz Multiple Systemic Infectious Disease Syndrome Questionnaire

Once the physical therapist suspects the possibility that the individual may have Lyme disease, the Horowitz Multiple Systemic Infectious Disease Syndrome Questionnaire can be administered to identify whether the individual is likely to have Lyme disease. Horowitz defines Multiple Systemic Infectious Disease Syndrome as a syndrome involving Lyme symptoms that are worsened by additional tick-borne co-infections, such as babesiosis and Bartonella, as well as by the presence of other multiple overlapping factors. Some of the abnormalities are caused by Lyme disease and co-infections and others are not, but all factors affect the clinical course. Horowitz developed the questionnaire by including a gestalt of symptoms that he found to be associated with Lyme disease in his clinical practice, items related to the likelihood of exposure to Lyme disease, and items related to overall physical and mental health.

A 2017 study supported the use of the HMQ as a valid, efficient, and low-cost screening tool for medical practitioners to decide if additional testing is warranted to distinguish between Lyme disease and other illnesses. The results of the study showed that the HMQ accurately differentiated between individuals with Lyme disease and healthy individuals. It can be completed independently by individuals or with the oversight of the physical therapist if needed.

Call Ahead And Ask Questions

Even if you find a doctor who specializes in treating tick-borne diseases, you will want to ask some questions before making an appointment and committing your time and money. A few basic questions to consider asking upfront include the following:

  • What is your experience in treating patients with tick-borne diseases?
  • How do you diagnose diseases? Do you use any specific labs or lab tests to confirm diagnosis?
  • Do you test for coinfections?
  • Do you use traditional antibiotics and/or herbals?
  • Do you have any patient success stories you can share?
  • Do you strictly adhere to CDC test interpretation criteria or are you open to alternative criteria?

If youd like to find a LLMD and want to know more about how to vet them, read the Tick Talk blog, What Makes a Doctor Lyme Literate?

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Disclosure And Management Of Potential Conflicts Of Interest

The Lyme conflict of interest review group consisting of 2 representatives from IDSA, AAN, and ACR were responsible for reviewing, evaluating, and approving all disclosures. All members of the expert panel complied with the consensus IDSA/AAN/ACR process for reviewing and managing conflicts of interest, which required disclosure of any financial, intellectual, or other interest that might be construed as constituting an actual, potential, or apparent conflict, regardless of relevancy to the guideline topic. Thus, to provide transparency, IDSA/AAN/ACR required full disclosure of all relationships. The assessment of disclosed relationships for possible COI by the IDSA/AAN/ACR review group was based on the relative weight of the financial relationship and the relevance of the relationship . For more information on allowable and prohibited relationships, please review Table 1 and Table 2. In addition, the IDSA/AAN/ACR adhered to Section 7 of the Council for Medical Specialty SocietiesââCode for Interactions with Companiesâ . The COI review group ensured that the majority of the panel and each cochair was without potential relevant conflicts . Each of the cochairs and all members of the technical team were determined to be unconflicted. See the notes section for disclosures reported to IDSA/AAN/ACR.

How To Avoid Tick Bites

How Have Tick-Borne Diseases Grown in the United States?

To reduce the chance of being bitten:

  • cover your skin while walking outdoors and tuck your trousers into your socks
  • use insect repellent on your clothes and skin products containing DEET are best
  • stay on clear paths whenever possible
  • wear light-coloured clothing so ticks are easier to see and brush off

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Not Everyone Gets A Bulls

The CDC states that 20%-30% of people with Lyme disease never get a bulls-eye rash. Physicians that routinely treat Lyme disease are observing that this number is even greater, in nearly 50% of their Lyme patients a rash is absent. Atypical rashes are common and an often overlooked symptom as well.

Ilads Campaign Highlights Importance Of Doctor

Bethesda, MD, December 9, 2021 The International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society is running a powerful public awareness campaign to highlight the importance of doctor-patient relationships in the treatment of Lyme and other chronic diseases. The campaign debuted this week on a jumbotron in New York Citys Times Square.

The jumbotron video highlights the challenges doctors face from bureaucratic institutions when trying to treat patients. The video sends viewers to the ILADS.ORG website for more information. .

ILADS supports a doctors freedom to treat and a patients right to choose the best treatment options available, without bureaucratic interference. A doctors primary duty is to put the patient first. Outside interference restricts a physicians ability to provide optimum care.

We want to restore real healthcare for our patients and allow doctors to prescribe the best possible treatments without interference from insurance companies and other bureaucracies, said Dr. Steven J. Bock, president of the ILADS Board of Directors.

The jumbotron is anything but invisible. The giant video screen is 29 feet tall and 56 feet across and is strategically positioned at 1500 Broadway on the corner of 44th Street and 7th Avenue in New York City. The spot will run 5 times per hour for 36 days. It is estimated that 1.6 million people pass through Times Square each day. The spot will remain in place during the December holidays and New Years Eve celebration for bonus exposure.

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