Cairns, Victoria, Godwin, Jon · International journal of epidemiology · 2005 · DOI
This study looked at patients who had Lyme disease and found that many experienced long-lasting fatigue, muscle and joint pain, and thinking difficulties even after antibiotic treatment. Researchers combined results from five previous studies comparing Lyme disease patients to healthy controls and found these symptoms were significantly more common in the Lyme disease group. The symptom pattern was notably different from other conditions like fibromyalgia or depression.
This study is relevant to ME/CFS research because post-Lyme borreliosis syndrome shares clinical features with ME/CFS, including post-infectious fatigue and neurocognitive dysfunction. Understanding how persistent infections or post-infectious states produce chronic symptoms in Lyme patients may illuminate similar mechanisms in ME/CFS. The distinct symptom pattern from other conditions validates that post-infectious syndromes represent specific clinical entities worthy of targeted research.
This meta-analysis does not establish causation or mechanisms—only that Lyme patients report more symptoms than controls. It does not prove that antibiotics fail to cure Lyme disease in all cases, only that some patients have persistent symptoms afterward. The study also cannot determine whether symptom differences reflect Lyme-specific pathology versus general post-infectious immune dysregulation.
About the PEM badge: “PEM required” means post-exertional malaise was an explicit required diagnostic criterion for participant inclusion in this study — not that PEM was studied, observed, or discussed. Studies using criteria that do not require PEM (e.g. Fukuda, Oxford) are tagged “PEM not required”. How the atlas works →
The first block is for the primary paper and is the citation you should use in research work. The atlas-snapshot line only applies if you are specifically referring to this atlas’s reading of the paper on the date shown.
Primary citation
Cairns, Victoria & Godwin, Jon (2005). Post-Lyme borreliosis syndrome: a meta-analysis of reported symptoms.. International journal of epidemiology. https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyi129
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-cairns-2005-post-lyme,
author = {Cairns, Victoria and Godwin, Jon},
title = {Post-Lyme borreliosis syndrome: a meta-analysis of reported symptoms.},
journal = {International journal of epidemiology},
year = {2005},
doi = {10.1093/ije/dyi129},
note = {PubMed: 16040645},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/cairns-2005-post-lyme},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-30. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/cairns-2005-post-lyme
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