Lyme Disease In Healthy Children

Tom Galton
Introduction to Psychology
First Research Summary

Felice A. Tager (2001) and her colleagues present a standard experimental study that compares the cognitive abilities of children who have Lyme disease with children who do not. The researchers find that overall, the cognitive abilities of children with Lyme disease are significantly impaired in comparison to healthy children. While this experiment contributes to our understanding of the symptoms and treatment of Lyme disease, as well as the general study of cognition and development, it suffers from several flaws in its research design. First, the researchers searched explicitly for subjects with Lyme disease who complained of cognitive troubles for the experimental group…show more content…
(2001) begin their study with a review of the existing literature. In this section, the researchers present what is already known about the cognitive symptoms of Lyme disease and describe how they hope to add to this body of knowledge. First, the authors provide a description of Lyme disease, noting how it affects various functions, including the cardiac, dermatologic, and neuropsychiatric systems (Tager 2001, p. 500). Fallon and Nields (1994) have previously described the neuropsychiatric symptoms of Lyme disease in adults, while Halperin et al. (1990) and Logigian et al. (1990) have also demonstrated that the illness can cause attention problems and memory loss in adults (Tager 2001, p. 500). The authors then note that Adams (1994) found that most children who had been treated early for Lyme disease did not suffer from neurological affects (Tager 2001, p. 500). However, the researchers argue that children who are not immediately diagnosed may develop cognitive symptoms (Tager 2001, p. 500-01). By conducting a study of children displaying various neuropsychiatric symptoms, the researchers hoped to fill a gap in the literature, since most previous research has focused on adults. The researchers hypothesized that the psychological symptoms that children with Lyme disease complained of would indeed manifest themselves in a series of cognitive…show more content…
While there are some shortcomings, the article makes a positive contribution to the existing literature and our understanding of human cognition. Furthermore, the study serves as an excellent starting point for future research. Related studies can be conducted to determine the prevalence of cognitive symptoms among those with Lyme disease. In addition, researchers could use imaging techniques to study which specific parts and functions of the brain are affected by the disease.

References
Adams, W.V. (1994). Cognitive effects of Lyme disease in children. Pediatrics, 94, 185-189.
Fallon, B.A. and Nields, J.A. (1994). Lyme disease: a neuro-psychiatric illness. American Journal of Psychiatry, 151, 1571-1583.
Halperin J, et al. (1990). Lyme borreliosis-associated encephalopathy. Neurology, 40, 1340- 1343.
Logigian, E.L. et al. (1990). Chronic neurologic manifestations of Lyme disease. New England Journal of Medicine, 323, 1438-1443.
Tager, F.A. et al. (2001). A controlled study of cognitive deficits in children with chronic Lyme disease. Journal of Neuropsychiatry & Clinical Neurosciences, 13(4),