It has long been a belief of mine that pathogen involvement should be considered with psychiatric issues, particularly with Lyme/MSIDS. I came to this conclusion after watching my husband battle with anxiety, depression, memory loss, rage, sudden crying spells, fear of abandonment, and other bizarre symptoms https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2015/09/16/bizarre-symptoms-msids/ which were completely new and out of the blue, while we were in treatment for Lyme/MSIDS. Upon further reading and talking to other patients, I became convinced.
The following article adds further credence to this idea: http://www.ijporlonline.com/article/S0165-5876(16)30380-9/fulltext
While this study is not a randomized clinical trial, it reveals improvement of psychiatric symptoms when concurrent sinusitis was treated and resolved.
Treatment was amoxicillin & clavulanic acid. A few received clindamycin or azithromycin, all of which are common antibiotics for Lyme/MSIDS and other infections.
The conclusion of the study stated that there is mounting evidence that inflammation and/or infection can affect neuropsychiatric health.
This has been reported before by a prominent LLMD.
https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2015/10/18/psychiatric-lymemsids/
LLMD, Dr. Horowtiz, goes on record stating that antibiotics are effective in Schizophrenia. With irony he points out that the authors attribute the reason minocycline helped these patients is due to its ability to affect glutamate pathways in the CNS, blocking nitric oxide-induced neurotoxicity, and inflammation in the brain. He reminds them that minocycline is a tetracycline antibiotic that very well may be treating an infection. He also emphatically states that he has had several schizophrenic patients test positive for Bb, the agent of Lyme Disease. After taking doxycycline they improved significantly and with the help of their psychiatrist, were able to reduce and in some cases eliminate all of their antipsychotic medication. It is important to note that patients remained stable on antibiotics but their symptoms returned if they stopped treatment. He says a doctor should suspect MSIDS in psychiatric patients if they have a symptom complex that has good and bad days with associated fevers, sweats and chills, fatigue, migratory joint and muscle pain, migratory neuralgias with tingling, numbness and burning sensations, a stiff neck and headache, memory and concentration problems, sleep disorders with associated psychiatric symptoms.
Horowtiz also reports the work of psychiatrist Dr. Brian Fallon who has linked Lyme Disease to paranoia, thought disorders, delusions with psychosis, schizophrenia, with or without visual, auditory or olfactory hallucinations, depression, panic attacks and anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder, anorexia, mood lability with violent outbursts, mania, personality changes, catatonia, dementia, atypical bipolar disorder, depersonalization/derealization, conversion disorders, somatization disorders, atypical psychoses, schizoaffective disorder and intermittent explosive disorders. In children and adolescents MSIDS can mimic Specific or Pervasive Developmental Delays, Attention-Deficit Disorder (Inattentive subtype), oppositional defiant disorder and mood disorders, obsessive compulsive disorder, anorexia, Tourette’s syndrome, and pseudo-psychotic disorders.
Minocycline has also been found to help MS: https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/06/04/minocycline-for-ms-and-much-more/
For patients with psychiatric issues, it’s important to rule out infections as players, unfortunately, that’s often nearly impossible for Lyme/MSIDS as the testing is so poor. ALL doctors need to become more educated on tick borne illness and its ability to cause and/or exacerbate psychiatric and cognitive issues. Hopefully, long gone are the days where Lyme/MSIDS is considered a mild dermatological disease with some joint involvement and fatigue.
This stuff can put you in the psych ward.
For more: https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/01/17/lymemsids-and-psychiatric-illness/
https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2015/10/18/psychiatric-lymemsids/
https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/06/20/suicide-lyme-and-associated-diseases/
Madison Area Lyme Support Group 