A study conducted by the Pitié Salpêtrière in Paris shows that 80% of patients treated for Lyme disease actually suffer from another pathology and in fact take bad treatment, sometimes for years.
Lyme disease, transmitted to humans by the bite of an infected tick, is making a lot of noise. However, as revealed by a study conducted by the Pitié Salpêtrière hospital in Paris and recently published in the BEH, only 10% of patients who consult for this pathology are really affected by it. Doctors realized by examining 301 patients potentially affected by Lyme disease, that 80% were in fact suffering from another pathology. In details, 31.2% suffered from psychological disorders, 17.7% from joint diseases and 15.2% from neurological diseases.
Diagnostic errors with serious consequences
“The majority of the patients we have found are patients who have psychological problems or even psychiatric problems, explains Dr Elie Haddad, infectious disease specialist at the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital. The problem is that the clinical signs of these psychic, psychological problems are the same as clinical signs of Lyme. We see a lot of fatigue, a lot of joint or muscle pain”.
Unfortunately, these diagnostic errors delay the management of their “real disease” and patients who actually suffer from Parkinson’s, Charcot’s disease or even multiple sclerosis receive unsuitable treatment, sometimes for years. “In the consultation you see everything about medical prescriptions. So we see an anti-parasitic treatment, an antifungal treatment, anti-infective treatments or even antibiotics which do not work on Lyme disease”.
Already last September, Éric Caumes, head of the infectious and tropical diseases department at Pitié-Salpêtrière, explained to Why Doctor that “patients were coming into (his) office with antibiotic prescriptions that have been going on for several years with zero benefit and lots of adverse effects. It was rubbish. There was even one who had a prescription with 24 medications to be taken per day”. For 80% of them, “there was a real loss. They were not treated properly” for the real pathologies they were suffering from.
“General practitioners no longer listen to patients”
Pr Éric Caumes reminded us that in the context of infectious diseases, “the treatment is normally rapid. Healing takes about 48 hours after taking the antibiotics. However, I had a patient who, for example, had a prescription on which it said ‘take until healed’. It’s just not possible”.
How can these misdiagnoses, which have serious consequences for some patients, be explained? “The problem lies with the fact that GPs no longer listen to patients. But that’s not entirely their fault. A good consultation should last around an hour when in reality they are dispatched in fifteen minutes.” According to him, “the sick are lost and relate to what they hear or read right and left”. He also pointed to a training problem among these doctors who miss the symptoms of Lyme disease. “The health and political authorities must take hold of the problem, otherwise it will continue”.
