Madison Area Lyme Support Group

Tortured by Lyme disease, a young man killed his friend and himself. He is not alone.

MARY BETH PFEIFFER

For decades, Lyme disease physicians have seen a small share of late-stage patients with symptoms far beyond the physical ravages of a tick bite. These patients, estimated to be 1 percent of chronic Lyme psychiatric cases, manifest brain disorders so intractable that they become violent, even homicidal.    

Now, a new article in the science journal Heliyon validates these observations and reveals possible mechanisms driving them. It tells the horrific story of a 32-year-old man whose tickborne infection at age 14—one of several—went unrecognized until it was unresponsive to treatment. Failed by short-course antibiotics that mainstream medical guidance swears by, he descended into substance abuse, as many chronic Lyme patients do, to ease his anxiety, depression, and physical pain.

Finally, in the delusional throes of PCP withdrawal, he walked next door, impulsively killed his best friend, stabbed the friend’s father and brother, and turned the knife on himself. He died on a bathroom floor, his mother having tried in vain to stanch two neck wounds.

All of this is a likely outcome of poorly treated Lyme disease under medical protocols that leave even early-treated patients sick—36 percent at six months and 5 percent at fifteen years. While animal studies and a handful of post-mortem reports have illustrated the failure of recommended treatments to quell Lyme disease—using antibiotics in insufficient strength or duration—this study goes further.

For the first time, based on analysis of autopsy samples, it shows both how persisting infection combined with chemical brain changes from substance abuse may have contributed to a disastrous outcome.  (See link for article and study)

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**Comment**

It’s stories like these that also make me highly critical of any federal attempt at rectification.

This story is a perfect example of how many go undiagnosed for so long they become recalcitrant.  The picture becomes muddier yet as they seek out ways to simply cope – and in this case turn to harmful drugs which adds a whole other dimension to an already complex picture.

The study thankfully was led by none other than Dr. Robert Bransfield, a literal icon in the world of Lyme and psychiatry.  He’s single-handedly written pretty much all that is known about how Lyme/MSIDS affects the brain.  Even though since 2015 the APA has recommended that evals for mental illness include assessments of ‘locally endemic infectious diseases such as Lyme disease,’ be done, they typically aren’t done.

The study showed that the patient had attached ticks on him at least fifteen times.  At 14 he developed the hallmark summer flu-like illness Lyme is known to cause that his pediatrician considered to be caused by a virus despite an attached tick!  His brain was found to have major inflammation and quinolinic acid – both of which are common in late Lyme disease.  PCP, the illegal drug he took reduces quinolinic acid.

The patient sought but was denied a bed in a substance abuse rehabilitation facility.  PCP withdrawal is known to cause fear, agitation, anxiety, irritability, hallucinations and flashbacks.

For more:

• https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2015/10/18/psychiatric-lymemsids/
• https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/09/17/ignoring-psychiatric-lyme-disease-at-our-peril/
• https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/08/25/neuropsychiatric-lyme-borreliosis-an-overview-with-a-focus-on-a-specialty-psychiatrists-clinical-practice/
• https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2020/01/06/a-clinical-diagnostic-system-for-late-stage-neuropsychiatric-lyme-borreliosis-based-upon-an-analysis-of-100-patients/
• https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2020/06/07/treating-psychiatric-lyme-symptoms-with-disulfiram/  Even though this drug caused me to spend a week with the worst disulfiram toxicity UW Madison Hospital has ever seen, I’m still glad I took it!
• https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2023/04/17/homicide-two-assaults-and-suicide-in-lyme-patient/
• https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/04/05/aggressiveness-violence-homicidality-homicide-ld/
• https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2024/01/09/woman-battling-lyme-disease-seeks-medical-assistance-in-dying/  I find it unacceptable that the medical profession would rather end a patient’s life than help them get better – even with controversial treatment.