Goodwin, S D, Sproat, T T, Russell, W L · Clinical pharmacy · 1990
This review examines Lyme disease, a tick-borne infection caused by a bacterium called Borrelia burgdorferi. The disease has three stages: early flu-like illness with a rash, middle-stage problems affecting the nervous system and heart, and late-stage arthritis or chronic fatigue. Treatment with antibiotics like doxycycline is most effective when started early.
This study is relevant to ME/CFS research because it documents that Lyme disease can present with a chronic fatigue syndrome phenotype in its third stage, helping researchers distinguish Lyme-associated fatigue from primary ME/CFS. Understanding the relationship between tick-borne infections and fatigue syndromes is important for accurate diagnosis and differential diagnosis in ME/CFS populations.
This review does not prove that ME/CFS is caused by Lyme disease or that most ME/CFS patients have undiagnosed Lyme infection. It does not establish the prevalence of Lyme-associated fatigue syndrome versus primary ME/CFS, nor does it provide mechanistic evidence for how Borrelia burgdorferi causes chronic fatigue symptoms.
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
Goodwin, S D, Sproat, T T, & Russell, W L (1990). Management of Lyme disease.. Clinical pharmacy. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2180624/
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-goodwin-1990-management-lyme,
author = {Goodwin, S D and Sproat, T T and Russell, W L},
title = {Management of Lyme disease.},
journal = {Clinical pharmacy},
year = {1990},
note = {PubMed: 2180624},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/goodwin-1990-management-lyme},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-25. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/goodwin-1990-management-lyme
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