Saturday 15 May 2010

AUTISM AND LYME DISEASE AWARENESS


Dr Charles Ray Jones talking on Lyme Disease and Autism.

Dr Horowitz at the Lyme Induced Autism conference.

Lyme Induced Autism Foundation can be accessed here

If your child has Autism, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) or Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) you may find this post interesting. Sadly as Lyme Disease is an emerging disease the controversy is holding back awareness amongst our doctors and so children with these disorders would rarely be properly assessed for a link with Lyme Disease.

Dr Bransfield the President of ILADS has worked in this field for some years and below is an abstract from his research.

The association between tick-borne infections, Lyme borreliosis and autism spectrum disorders.
Bransfield RC
, Wulfman JS, Harvey WT, Usman AI.
Department of Psychiatry, Riverview Medical Center, 225 State Route 35, Red Bank, NJ, United States. bransfield@comcast.net

Abstract
Chronic infectious diseases, including tick-borne infections such as Borrelia burgdorferi may have direct effects, promote other infections and create a weakened, sensitized and immunologically vulnerable state during fetal development and infancy leading to increased vulnerability for developing autism spectrum disorders. A dysfunctional synergism with other predisposing and contributing factors may contribute to autism spectrum disorders by provoking innate and adaptive immune reactions to cause and perpetuate effects in susceptible individuals that result in inflammation, molecular mimicry, kynurenine pathway changes, increased quinolinic acid and decreased serotonin, oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction and excitotoxicity that impair the development of the amygdala and other neural structures and neural networks resulting in a partial Klüver-Bucy Syndrome and other deficits resulting in autism spectrum disorders and/or exacerbating autism spectrum disorders from other causes throughout life. Support for this hypothesis includes multiple cases of mothers with Lyme disease and children with autism spectrum disorders; fetal neurological abnormalities associated with tick-borne diseases; similarities between tick-borne diseases and autism spectrum disorder regarding symptoms, pathophysiology, immune reactivity, temporal lobe pathology, and brain imaging data; positive reactivity in several studies with autistic spectrum disorder patients for Borrelia burgdorferi (22%, 26% and 20-30%) and 58% for mycoplasma; similar geographic distribution and improvement in autistic symptoms from antibiotic treatment. It is imperative to research these and all possible causes of autism spectrum disorders in order to prevent every preventable case and treat every treatable case until this disease has been eliminated from humanity.
PMID: 17980971 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

I had the privilege to hear Dr Bransfield present on Chronic Lyme Disease and Neuropsychiatric Lyme Disease at the Lyme Disease Action Conference 2008 details here.

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