NEW HAVEN, Conn. - Overtreatment and overdiagnosis of Lyme
disease have become associated with inappropriate use of health
services, avoidable treatment-related illness and substantial
disability and distress, according to a study from Yale
University's School of Medicine. The study indicates that
apprehensive patients can also cause doctors to hastily
prescribe treatments without fully recognizing the consequences.
Although some of the improper treatment and diagnosis was
"patient driven," some responsibility did lay with the attending
physician, researchers said. Of the 209 patients studied, 60%
turned out not to have Lyme disease at all, but still made an
average of seven visits to a doctor, had four blood tests and
underwent 42 days of antibiotic treatment. Of that group, 42%
said they suffered depression after becoming convinced they had
the disease. More than half reported adverse events from the
antibiotics and 20% sought additional treatment. Lyme disease
remains one of the most difficult diseases to