Archive for the ‘Treatment’ Category

Rickettsia spp. in East Texas With Reduced Tick Density Due to Controlled Burns

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31704208

2019 Oct 17:101310. doi: 10.1016/j.ttbdis.2019.101310. [Epub ahead of print]

Presence of diverse Rickettsia spp. and absence of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato in ticks in an East Texas forest with reduced tick density associated with controlled burns.

Hodo CL1, Forgacs D1, Auckland LD1, Bass K2, Lindsay C1, Bingaman M2, Sani T1, Colwell K1, Hamer GL2, Hamer SA3.

Abstract

As tick-borne diseases continue to emerge across the United States, there is need for a better understanding of the tick and pathogen communities in the southern states and of habitat features that influence transmission risk. We surveyed questing and on-host ticks in pine-dominated forests with various fire management regimes in the Sam Houston National Forest, a popular recreation area near Houston, Texas. Four linear transects were established- two with a history of controlled burns, and two unburned. Systematic drag sampling yielded 112 ticks from two species, Ixodes scapularis (n=73) and Amblyomma americanum (n=39), with an additional 106 questing ticks collected opportunistically from drag cloth operators.

There was a significant difference in systematically-collected questing tick density between unburned (15 and 18 ticks/1000 m2) and burned (2 and 4 ticks/1000 m2) transects. We captured 106 rodents and found 74 ticks on the rodents, predominantly Dermacentor variabilis. One unburned transect had significantly more ticks per mammal than any of the other three transects. DNA of Rickettsia species was detected in 146/292 on and off-host ticks, including the ‘Rickettsial endosymbiont of I. scapularis’ and Rickettsia amblyommatis, which are of uncertain pathogenicity to humans. Borrelia lonestari was detected in one A. americanum, while Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto, the agent of Lyme disease, was not detected in any tick samples. Neither Borrelia nor Rickettsia spp. were detected in any of the mammal ear biopsies (n=64) or blood samples (n=100) tested via PCR.

This study documents a high prevalence in ticks of Rickettsia spp. thought to be endosymbionts, a low prevalence of relapsing fever group Borrelia in ticks, and a lack of detection of Lyme disease-group Borrelia in both ticks and mammals in an east Texas forested recreation area. Additionally, we observed low questing tick density in areas with a history of controlled burns. These results expand knowledge of tick-borne disease ecology in east Texas which can aid in directing future investigative, modeling, and management efforts.

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**Comment**

Why states do not do seasonal controlled burns is beyond me. It’s inexpensive and doesn’t have the negative side-effects that pesticides do – and it works ticks:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/07/18/frequent-prescribed-fires-can-reduce-risk-of-tick-borne-diseases/

Also, please remember that while Lyme was not found it doesn’t mean it isn’t there.  There are plenty of Texas patients with Lyme disease.

Category:

Lyme, research, Rickettsia, Ticks, Treatment

Science and Alternative Medicine Agree: It’s Probably Time You Try Acupuncture

https://sporteluxe.com/science-and-alternative-medicine-say-its-probably-time-you-try-acupuncture/  Full Article Here

Science And Alternative Medicine Agree: It’s Probably Time You Try Acupuncture

DAVID MINKOFF
October, 29 2019
image
Image: Antonika Chanel

Category:

Gut Health, Inflammation, Pain Management, research, Treatment

Side Effects Mild & Brief With Single Antidepressant Dose of Intravenous Ketamine

https://neurosciencenews.com/ketamine-side-effects-depression-15222/

Side effects mild and brief with single antidepressant dose of intravenous ketamine

Neuroscience NewsNEUROSCIENCE NEWS
Summary: The side effects of administering ketamine to treat major depressive disorder are mild and persist for no longer than four hours, researchers report. Most of the side effects peaked within an hour of treatment, and many patients reported the effects as being significantly reduced two hours post ketamine administration.Source: NIH/NIMH

National Institutes of Health researchers found that a single, low-dose ketamine infusion was relatively free of side effects for patients with treatment-resistant depression. Elia Acevedo-Diaz, M.D., Carlos Zarate, M.D., and colleagues at the NIH’s National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) report their findings in the Journal of Affective Disorders.

Studies have shown that a single, subanesthetic-dose (a lower dose than would cause anesthesia) ketamine infusion can often rapidly relieve depressive symptoms within hours in people who have not responded to conventional antidepressants, which typically take weeks or months to work. However, widespread off-label use of intravenous subanesthetic-dose ketamine for treatment-resistant depression has raised concerns about side effects, especially given its history as a drug of abuse.

“The most common short-term side effect was feeling strange or loopy,” said Acevedo-Diaz, of the Section on the Neurobiology and Treatment of Mood Disorders, part of the NIMH Intramural Research Program (IRP) in Bethesda, Maryland. “Most side effects peaked within an hour of ketamine administration and were gone within two hours. We did not see any serious, drug-related adverse events or increased ketamine cravings with a single-administration.”

This shows two brain diagrams

The researchers compiled data on side effects from 163 patients with major depressive disorder or bipolar disorder and 25 healthy controls who participated in one of five placebo-controlled clinical trials conducted at the NIH Clinical Center over 13 years. While past studies have been based mostly on passive monitoring, the NIMH IRP assessment involved active and structured surveillance of emerging side effects in an inpatient setting and used both a standard rating scale and clinician interviews. In addition to dissociative (disconnected, unreal) symptoms, the NIMH IRP assessment examined other potential side effects – including headaches, dizziness, and sleepiness. The study did not address the side effects associated with repeated infusions or long-term use.

Out of 120 possible side effects evaluated, 34 were found to be significantly associated with the treatment. Eight occurred in at least half of the participants: feeling strange, weird, or bizarre; feeling spacey; feeling woozy/loopy; dissociation; floating; visual distortions; difficulty speaking; and numbness. None persisted for more than four hours. No drug-related serious adverse events, cravings, propensity for recreational use, or significant cognitive or memory deficits were seen during a three-month follow-up.

Credit: NIMH.To overcome the limitations associated with side effects and intravenous delivery, ongoing research efforts seek to develop a more practical rapid-acting antidepressant that works in the brain similarly to ketamine. These NIMH researchers, in collaboration with the National Institute on Aging, and the National Center for Advancing Translational Science, are planning a clinical trial of a ketamine metabolite that showed promise as a potentially more specific-acting treatment in pre-clinical studies. Meanwhile, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration earlier this year approved an intranasal form of ketamine called esketamine, which can be administered to adults with treatment-resistant depression in a certified doctor’s office or clinic.

ABOUT THIS NEUROSCIENCE RESEARCH ARTICLE

Source:
NIH/NIMH
Media Contacts:
Jules Asher – NIH/NIMH
Image Source:
The image is credited to NIMH.

Original Research: Closed access
“Comprehensive assessment of side effects associated with a single dose of ketamine in treatment-resistant depression.”. Acevedo-Diaz EE, Cavanaugh GW, Greenstein D, Kraus C, Kadriu B, Zarate CA Jr, Park LT.
Journal of Affective Disorders doi:10.1016/j.jad.2019.11.028.

Abstract

Comprehensive assessment of side effects associated with a single dose of ketamine in treatment-resistant depression.

Background
Concerns about ketamine for treating depression include abuse potential and the occurrence of psychotomimetic effects. This study sought to comprehensively assess side effects (SEs) associated with a single subanesthetic-dose intravenous ketamine infusion. A secondary aim was to examine the relationship between Clinician-Administered Dissociative States Scale (CADSS) scores and dissociative symptoms reported on a comprehensive, clinician-administered SE questionnaire.

Methods
Data from 188 participants were pooled from four placebo-controlled, crossover ketamine trials and one open-label study (n=163 with either treatment-resistant major depressive disorder or bipolar disorder and 25 healthy controls). SEs were actively solicited in a standardized fashion and monitored over the time-course of each study. Statistical analyses assessed the effect of drug (ketamine, placebo) on SEs and measured the relationship between CADSS total score and SEs contemporaneously endorsed during structured interviews.

Results
Forty-four of 120 SEs occurred in at least 5% of participants over all trials. Thirty-three of these 44 SEs were significantly associated with active drug administration (versus placebo). The most common SE was feeling strange/weird/loopy. Most SEs peaked within an hour of ketamine administration and resolved completely by two hours post-infusion. No serious drug-related adverse events or increased ketamine craving/abuse post-administration were observed. A positive correlation was found between dissociative SEs and total CADSS score.

Limitations
The post-hoc nature of the analysis; the limited generalizability of a single subanesthetic-dose ketamine infusion; and the lack of formal measures to assess ketamine’s cognitive, urological, or addictive potential.

Conclusions
No long-lasting significant SEs occurred over the approximately three-month follow-up period.

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For more:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/04/18/ketamine-reduces-depression-related-behaviors-in-mice-limits-bb-in-vivo-relieves-chronic-pain/

It’s also been shown to limit borrelia in vitro:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/03/10/ketamine-limits-bb-in-vitro/

And its’s been shown to relieve chronic pain, improve quality of life, reduce depression and suicidal ideation, and reduce opioid consumption:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/09/14/iv-ketamine-in-ptls/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/04/26/fda-approves-ketamine-nasal-spray-for-depression/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/09/20/the-chemical-imbalance-myth-and-antidepressant-harm/

 

Category:

Lyme, Pain Management, research, Treatment

Blood ‘cleaning’ Treatments Which Pulls Disease From Body Using Magnets Ready For Human Trials

https://www-telegraph-co-uk.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2019/11/10/blood-cleaning-treatment-pulls-disease-body-using-magnets-ready/amp/

Blood ‘cleaning’ treatment which pulls disease from body using magnets ready for human trials

Dr George Frodsham, who came up with the idea
Dr George Frodsham, who came up with the idea

By Sarah Knapton

Deadly conditions like leukaemia, sepsis and malaria could be drawn from the body using magnets, after a British engineer designed a blood filtering system which sieves away disease.
Dr George Frodsham, came up with the idea while studying how magnetic nanoparticles can be made to bind to cells in the body, to allow, for example those cells to show up on scanners….The first human trials of the technology – called MediSieve – are awaiting approval from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and are likely to start next year.   (See link for full article)

Category:

research, Treatment

How Many Lyme Disease Patients Don’t Meet Strict Diagnostic Criteria?

https://danielcameronmd.com/how-many-lyme-disease-patients-dont-meet-strict-diagnostic-criteria/

HOW MANY LYME DISEASE PATIENTS DON’T MEET STRICT DIAGNOSTIC CRITERIA?

In a recent article published in Open Forum Infectious Disease, Kobayashi and colleagues suggest that Lyme disease is often mistakenly diagnosed as causing various illnesses, which has led to the unnecessary use of antibiotics. The authors conducted a retrospective study of patients with possible Lyme disease, who were referred to an infectious disease clinic in Maryland between 2000 and 2013. ¹

By

Kobayashi and colleagues concluded that nearly 3 out of 4 patients referred to the clinic did not have Lyme disease. They did not interview the referring doctor at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Instead, they conducted a chart review.

However, to be included in the study, patients had to meet the Infectious Diseases Society of America’s (IDSA) guidelines or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) clinical and serological criteria.

The authors found that out of 1,261 patients, all but one were symptomatic when they presented to the clinic, with a median duration of complaints of 558 days, ranging from 1 day to 51 years.

“The 5 most commonly identified symptoms were arthralgia (71.3%), fatigue/malaise (66.8%), headache (42.1%), myalgia (40.8%), and sleep disturbance (34.3%),” writes Kobayashi.

Only a few patients had abnormal physical findings.

“The 5 most common abnormal physical findings were rash other than erythema migrans (6.6%), joint swelling (5.9%), tender points (3%), objective sensory abnormality (2.1%), and motor weakness (1.5%),” the authors explain.

The researchers did not report a number of clinical presentations that can occur in Lyme disease, including:

  1. Lyme encephalopathy [2]
  2. Lyme neuropathy [2]
  3. Neuropsychiatric Lyme disease [3]
  4. Pediatric neuropsychiatric disorders – PANS [4]
  5. Lyme carditis [5]
  6. Autonomic dysfunction – POTS [6]
  7. Post-treatment Lyme fatigue – Post-Lyme disease [7]
  8. Neuropathic pain [8]
  9. Persistent symptoms after Lyme disease [9]
  10. Lyme disease with co-infection e.g. Babesia [10]
It may be that many physicians do not recognize or document these types of manifestations, given that the authors didn’t mention any of these presentations.
Approximately 1 in 10 patients had a history of co-infections.

“Although 139 (11%) co-infections were diagnosed before evaluation at the infectious diseases clinic, none of these infections were confirmed or treated based upon the evaluations performed in this study,” writes Kobayashi.

“Of these 139 putative co-infections, 61 (44%) were said to be caused by Babesia microti or B. duncani, 40 (29%) by Epstein-Barr virus, 30 (22%) by Bartonella, 11 (8%) by Ehrlichia spp., and 32 (23%) were attributed to other infectious agents,” writes Kobayashi.

Related Articles:

Dismissing chronic Lyme disease for somatic symptom disorder diagnosis

Study finds misdiagnosis and delayed diagnosis common for Lyme disease patients

Getting the diagnosis correct and avoiding anchor bias

References:
  1. Takaaki Kobayashi, Yvonne Higgins, Roger Samuels, Aurasch Moaven, Abanti Sanyal, Gayane Yenokyan, Paul M Lantos, Michael T Melia, Paul G Auwaerter, Misdiagnosis of Lyme Disease With Unnecessary Antimicrobial Treatment Characterizes Patients Referred to an Academic Infectious Diseases Clinic, Open Forum Infectious Diseases, Volume 6, Issue 7, July 2019.
  2. Logigian EL, Kaplan RF, Steere AC. Chronic neurologic manifestations of Lyme disease. N Engl J Med. 1990;323(21):1438-1444.
  3. Fallon BA, Nields JA. Lyme disease: a neuropsychiatric illness. Am J Psychiatry. 1994;151(11):1571-1583.
  4. Sigra S, Hesselmark E, Bejerot S. Treatment of PANDAS and PANS: a systematic review. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2018;86:51-65.
  5. Muehlenbachs A, Bollweg BC, Schulz TJ, et al. Cardiac Tropism of Borrelia burgdorferi: An Autopsy Study of Sudden Cardiac Death Associated with Lyme Carditis. Am J Pathol. 2016.
  6. Kanjwal K, Karabin B, Kanjwal Y, Grubb BP. Postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome following Lyme disease. Cardiology journal. 2011;18(1):63-66.
  7. Krupp LB, Hyman LG, Grimson R, et al. Study and treatment of post Lyme disease (STOP-LD): a randomized double masked clinical trial. Neurology. 2003;60(12):1923-1930.
  8. Simons LE. Fear of pain in children and adolescents with neuropathic pain and complex regional pain syndrome. Pain. 2016;157 Suppl 1:S90-97.
  9. Klempner MS, Hu LT, Evans J, et al. Two controlled trials of antibiotic treatment in patients with persistent symptoms and a history of Lyme disease. N Engl J Med. 2001;345(2):85-92.
  10. Krause PJ, Telford SR, 3rd, Spielman A, et al. Concurrent Lyme disease and babesiosis. Evidence for increased severity and duration of illness. Jama. 1996;275(21):1657-1660.

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**Comment**

This article brings up very important points – many patients do not meet the stringent CDC diagnostic criteria to even be accepted into research studies much less be diagnosed with Lyme/MSIDS. For 40 years we’ve had blood serology that misses half of all cases as well as the fact many patients do not present with the “classic” EM rash but either have no rash at all or a rash that presents differently.  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/02/22/why-mainstream-lyme-msids-research-remains-in-the-dark-ages/

You’d have to be blind to not see how patients are immediately set up for failure.

While they continue to shout about unnecessary antibiotics, most patients are denied care. Trust me when I say we all have much better things to do besides taking expensive, painful treatment!

Until the CDC/IDSA/NIH admit that they only have a very partial picture of how Lyme/MSIDS presents patients are doomed to the same suffering they’ve been suffering for over 40 years.

Category:

Lyme, research, Treatment