Affiliations: Yüzüncü Yıl University, Faculty of
Medicine, Department of Infectious Diseases, Van, Turkiye | Yüzüncü Yıl University, Faculty of
Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, Van, Turkiye
Note: [] Correspondence: Hayrettin Akdeniz, MD, Yüzüncü
Yıl University, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Infectious Diseases,
Van, Turkiye. Tel.: +90 432 2120883; Fax: +90 432 2167519; E-mail:
akdenizhayr@hotmail.com
Abstract: Lyme disease is an infectious disease caused by the tick-borne
spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi. Its clinical hallmark, erythema migrans,
is present only in about two thirds of infected patients. After erythema
migrans, Bannwarth's syndrome (meningitis, polyradiculoneuritis, cranial nerve
palsies) represents the second most common clinical manifestation of acute
Borrelia infection, especially in Europe. We describe here two cases of Lyme
neuroborreliosis presenting chiefly with neuropsychiatric symptoms displaying
difficulties in diagnosis because the patients had no history of tick bite or
erythema migrans. In one of the cases, psychiatric complaints were predominant
and she had a preliminary diagnosis of catatonic and psychotic disorder due to
a general medical condition. The other patient had a clinical picture of
meningitis with a protracted course. They were successfully treated with oral
doxycycline. Apropos of these two cases, the relevant literature has been
reviewed.
