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True Crime as True Lyme: Tick Bite Leads to Murder-Suicide

Written by MARY BETH PFEIFFER | Jul 31, 2024 9:57:02 PM

Story from Trial Site News 

Tortured by Lyme disease, a young man killed his friend and himself. He is not alone.

For decades, Lyme disease physicians have seen a small share of late-stage patients with symptoms far beyond the physical ravages of a tick bite. These patients, estimated to be 1 percent of chronic Lyme psychiatric cases, manifest brain disorders so intractable that they become violent, even homicidal.     

Now, a new article in the science journal Heliyon validates these observations and reveals possible mechanisms driving them. It tells the horrific story of a 32-year-old man whose tickborne infection at age 14—one of several—went unrecognized until it was unresponsive to treatment. Failed by short-course antibiotics that mainstream medical guidance swears by, he descended into substance abuse, as many chronic Lyme patients do, to ease his anxiety, depression, and physical pain. 

Finally, in the delusional throes of PCP withdrawal, he walked next door, impulsively killed his best friend, stabbed the friend’s father and brother, and turned the knife on himself. He died on a bathroom floor, his mother having tried in vain to stanch two neck wounds.  READ MORE  

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