Posted by Lorraine on October 1, 2003, at 23:36:11
I used to post here a while back. This group was very supportive during my many treatment failures. I was mis-diagnosed with depression for 8 years. Anti-depression meds (uppers, mood stabilizers etc)didn't work--I had 52 drug trials and failures. finally, i asked my psychopharmacologist if I should have any physical tests done to rule out organic causes. He said not to bother. But I bothered. I found a good basic doctor (alternative) and had them run an IgeneX Western Blot Lyme test. It came back positive and I have been treated with antibiotics for the past 2 years--the past 4 months on IV Rocephin. The Lyme disease had invaded my nervous system. It showed up in a spect scan as diffuse areas of hypoperfusion (loss of blood flow to the brain) and on an MRI as tiny foci of intensity (indicative of scarring in the brain). The Lyme treatment has not been easy for me (you get worse before you get better), but I am now almost completely better. My depression went away after 6 months of oral antibiotics.
Lyme disease is spread by ticks. Most people are not aware that they have been bitten. I am writing to encourage people here to make sure that they do not have an underlying physical cause for their depression because if you do the "palliative" or symptomatic treatment used for psychiatric illnesses will not address the underlying problem which may worsen. In my case, 8 years of misdiagnosis is a long time to allow a neuro-lyme infection to run rampant. The infection becomes entrenched and difficult to treat. In Europe they tested patients in mental institutions for Lyme and something like 30% tested positive. So, mental illness symptoms are a big part of Lyme disease. Many people on this board have had trouble finding medications that work. It may be that there is an underlying physical disease that needs to be addressed.
If you live in the city and don't visit the country or hike, lyme disease is not likely. But if you like the outdoors, hike or live in an endemic area (east coast, California coast, mid-west), then you are more likely to have come in contact with ticks. The ones that spread the disease are frequently nymphs which are roughly the size of the period at the end of this sentence. You usually are not aware you have been bitten. You may or may not get the characteristic bulls-eye rash. You may get neurological symptoms (sleep disturbance, cognitive impairment, depression or MS like symptoms) or arthritic symptoms. In my case I had depression, cognitive impairment, arthritis of the right knee, and sometimes pins and needles sensations in my hands or feet. I dismissed the arthritis as part of getting old (wrong, especially when arthritis comes and goes and hits one spot it may be Lyme). The pins and needles I thought was attributable to my computer chair. I didn't put the symptoms together, in short. The other thing that threw me off was that my symptoms would "ebb and flow" come and go--so I'd think my meds were working and then they'd fail. All of my AD meds ultimately failed, I got worse and worse and then, thank god, I finally got diagnosed and on the path to treatment of the real problem.
For those interested in more information on Lyme disease, see http://www.columbia-lyme.org/flatp/lymeoverview.html
Not everyone who has depression or other mental illness has Lyme disease, but if you like to hike, live in an endemic area or have treatment resistant depression or other mental illness you owe it to yourself to check it out (as well as other physical causes of mental illness). I think this is one area where psychiatrists fall short--ruling out other conditions.
Peace and good luck to all of you.
poster:Lorraine
thread:264842
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20030925/msgs/264842.html