Lyme
Disease Treatment Is Source Of Contention
By
Sandy Berenbaum
August
5th, 2006
I applaud
The Courant for publishing the July 31 Other Opinion article
"Medical Revisionists Threaten Effective Lyme Treatment"
by Raphael B. Stricker, M.D., president of the International
Lyme and Associated Diseases Society.
In my psychotherapy
practice, I see children and adolescents who have serious neuropsychiatric
manifestations of chronic Lyme disease. These profoundly affect
their lives, in and out of school. Most have been misdiagnosed
in the past by at least one doctor who restricts his or her
view of Lyme to that of the Infectious Diseases Society of America
and who denies chronic Lyme. It often takes years for the parents
to find an answer to their child's devastating headaches, stomachaches,
sleep problems, profound fatigue and problems with mood and
cognition; to learn that their child does indeed have Lyme;
and for treatment to begin. At this stage, treatment is usually
longer and more costly, and those years the child lost will
never be regained.
I see these
children when they are very ill, and then I see these children's
health restored after months or years of treatment by doctors
who understand chronic Lyme and use the ILADS treatment guidelines.
I see these children return to school, sometimes after months
or years of absence, and go on to college.
How much
of this do the Lyme deniers of the IDSA see? If they saw it,
would they be willing to take another look at the damage their
narrow-minded thinking continues to do?
Sandy
Berenbaum
Southbury
The
writer is a licensed clinical social worker.
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