Panic
Attacks May Reveal Previously Unsuspected Chronic Disseminated Lyme Disease
Virginia
T. Sherr, M.D.
Abstract
reprinted with permission from Journal of Psychiatric Practice,
6:352–356, November 2000
The author describes
the histories of three patients with panic-like episodes that turned out
to be related to underlying, previously unsuspected tick-borne diseases.
Each woman experienced symptoms that are not usual in panic disorder but
are typical of neurological Lyme disease, including exquisite sensitivity
to light, touch, and sounds, joint pain often in combination with cognitive
changes including mental fogginess and loss of recent memory, and some degree
of bizarre, shifting, and often excruciating neurological pain. Because
these symptoms are atypical of primary panic disorder, they were very helpful
in alerting the clinician to suspect an underlying physical illness. In
each case, the results of testing revealed positive hallmarks of disseminated
Lyme and other tick-borne diseases, including Lyme borreliosis caused by
the spirochete, Borrelia burgdorferi, babesiosis, and
ehrlichiosis. Since beginning treatment with intensive doses of
appropriate antimicrobial medications for their tick-borne infections, all
three patients have become free of panic attacks. Treatment of their infections
by a specialist in Lyme disease allowed one of the women to discontinue
anti-anxiety medication completely and another to reduce the dose of medication
to occasional use only. The third patient is no longer anxious but her depression
is resolving more slowly despite the ongoing use of an antidepressant. Two
of the patients have also needed ongoing medication for pain and other symptoms
of late-stage, neurological Lyme disease.
Key Words: panic
attacks, Lyme disease, neuroborreliosis, chronic Lyme disease, stress, tick-borne
diseases, restless leg syndrome, memory loss, Jarisch-Herxheimer reactions,
spirochetal disease, Borrelia burgdorferi, ehrlichiosis, babesiosis
By saying nothing
... he took away ... the human foothold I so desperately needed ... I entered
nothingness and limbo...This would be tolerable ... if it could be communicated
to others, and become a subject of understanding and sympathy—like
grief. This was denied me when the [physician] said “Nothing,”
so that I was thrown into the further hell—the hell of communication
denied.
— Oliver Sacks,
MD, from A Leg to Stand On (New York: Simon & Schuster, Touchstone
Books; 1984: 84-5)
Virginia T. Sherr, M.D.
has a private practice of general psychiatry.
Please send correspondence
and article requests to:
Virginia T. Sherr, MD, 47 Crescent Drive, Holland, PA 18966-2105.
Copyright© 2000 by Lippincott
Williams & Wilkins Inc. All rights reserved
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