Conventional Lyme treatment found effective

Patients who undergo conventional antimicrobial treatment for Lyme disease report no greater level of health problems years later than comparable groups who did not have the disease, according to the largest study to date of long-term effects of the disease. “The outcomes of the vast majority of patients with Lyme disease were excellent and not much different from those who had not had the condition,” said one of the study’s authors, Eugene D. Shapiro, M.D., professor of pediatrics and of epidemiology.

As reported in the February 2 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, the study looked at 678 patients. “The degree of anxiety about Lyme disease that many people have doesn’t appear to be justified, given the positive, long-term outcomes of treated patients that we have observed,” said Shapiro. “The prognosis for the vast majority of Lyme disease patients who receive conventional antibiotic treatment is excellent.”

Lyme disease has been a lightning rod for controversy for years, with a vocal group of patients and some physicians insisting that the disease is underdiagnosed and undertreated. Many physicians, however, counter that a short-term regimen of antibiotics is adequate to treat the disease.