Mental Health Care for People Living with Lyme Disease

Lyme Disease is a condition that is well known to have many physical symptoms such as headache, fever and myalgia that can become even more serious in later stages. What is perhaps less well known about the disease are its serious implications for mental health.

Beyond the physical hardship, studies indicate that people with Lyme Disease are at significantly greater risk for mental disorders, including suicidal ideation and suicide itself.

Large Study Findings from Denmark

A new Danish study reported that patients hospitalized with Lyme Disease had a 28% higher rate of mental disorders and were twice as likely to have attempted suicide post-infection. This study is believed to be the first large population-based study examining the relationship between psychiatric outcomes and the disease.

Transmitted by the bite of deer ticks, each year there are approximately 500,000 people in the US who are diagnosed with and treated for Lyme Disease. The Danish study notes that the rate for affective disorders was highest during the first year after diagnosis, and the rate for completed suicide highest during the first three years following diagnosis.

IV Ketamine can Help when Antidepressant Medication Cannot

With the onset of depression, anxiety or suicidal ideation following a diagnosis for Lyme Disease, practitioners often prescribe traditional antidepressant medications. In addition to having potential side effects of their own, these drugs are not always effective for treating the condition. Sometimes patients are shifted to different drugs, only to experience even lower rates of remission for their symptoms.

IV Ketamine, a treatment using the established intravenous anesthetic drug Ketamine, is proving to be a highly effective recourse for patients with treatment resistant depression and anxiety as a result of contracting Lyme Disease. Findings note that 30% of patients do not respond to traditional medications. If you are depressed and or suicidal, please call Dr. Lifschutz to discuss treatment options that can help you cope with the aftermath of Lyme Disease.