Microsoft word - kids and lyme - how it affects learning - 12.30.2005.doc
KIDS AND LYME DISEASE
HOW IT AFFECTS THEIR LEARNING
Sandy Berenbaum, LCSW, BCD
Family Connections Center for Counseling
Introduction: There is an urgent need for Lyme disease education and awareness in the schools throughout the United States. In addition to the "ABC's of Lyme," and the new "Time for Lyme" video, Lyme professionals - physicians, psychotherapists, neuropsychologists, need to be seeking opportunities to provide in-service training to schools, so that teachers and other school professionals understand and appreciate the difficulties that face kids with Lyme every day. We need to call on the schools to help these children, and education is the key. The following is a presentation I gave to the Northern Dutchess County (NY) Support Group in November 2002. Perhaps it will provide ideas for other presentations to Lyme groups and schools around the country. Every child with Lyme disease should feel understood and supported, and be successful in school. Lyme disease may be a handicap that some children have, but it should not be an insurmountable obstacle.
When my colleague, Lynne Canon, and I started our private practice 16 years ago, we did so with a commitment to providing psychotherapy and family therapy to adolescents and their parents. For five years, we did just that, with no thought that a medical illness might be at the root of the psychiatric, behavioral or learning problems some of these kids might have. Then, in 1991, a client was referred to us who had a profound effect on us, and on our practice. I will call him "Jim". Jim was a 15 year old boy who refused to go to school. He was paranoid, fearing that people were out to get him as well as his family, and he could not sleep at all. His parents reported that he had been an honors student up to a few months prior to our first session, but now, when he did
go to school, he failed every test he took. He appeared to be physically fit and well disciplined. He was even skilled in the martial arts. On Intake, we asked standard history and family history questions. We found Jim to be a very verbal and engaging young man, obviously bright, and a deep thinker. We saw agitation, restlessness, and anxiety, as well as the paranoia reported by his parents. Toward the end of our initial interview, we asked about his hobbies. With great enthusiasm, Jim told us about his volunteer work at an environmental center here in Dutchess County, and of his hopes for a career involving environmental studies. Jim was a real puzzle to us. We were faced with a set of symptoms and functional problems that made no sense, even in examining his history. Realizing that there had been a dramatic onset of symptoms at a particular point in time
, and that Jim had spent so much time out of doors in what we now see as the Lyme capital of the universe, we referred him to his family doctor for a Lyme assessment. His pediatrician took a titer, which came back "negative", (any of you parents have that experience?) indicating to this doctor
that Lyme was not a factor! That
road appearing closed, we continued to see Jim, as well as his parents, and watched a steady decline in Jim's functioning. He could not go to school, and was placed on home teaching. His parents and we were completely baffled.
As Jim's symptoms got worse, we thought he might have to go into a psychiatric hospital. In a last
quest for a possible medical answer, we suggested that his parents take him for a consultation to a pediatrician who we knew to be Lyme-knowledgable. On the day that consulting doctor saw Jim, he called to tell us that he had made a CLINICAL DIAGNOSIS of Lyme disease, a diagnosis based on Jim's clinical symptoms, NOT on a blood test. The doctor prescribed Ceftin, a drug that crosses the blood brain barrier, attacking spirochetes that were in the brain. Within three days
, Jim's paranoia disappeared. He admitted to having had hallucinations, and they too were gone. He was now sleeping 14 or more hours a day, and for the first time, ha