One for the GP’s who inhabit this place! Mrs Jerseychaz has been diagnosed with CFS (so far as one can), initially there were suspicions of Lyme Disease at the onset (about 10 years ago). Now, we are in France and occasionally things get lost in translation even with our English speaking French GP. Mrs Chaz was recently treated for a chest infection with 1g Amoxycillyn. On completing the course she reported that she felt much better – no fatigue, stronger etc. A few weeks later on we are back to square one, tired, weak etc. etc. so GP has after discussion prescribed 30 days of Doxycycline 100mg. Now Mrs Chaz has dug up some research that suggests a “start/stop” regime of say 5 days on & 5 days off may be better at combating the Lyme Disease. She’s also worried about the potential side effects of Doxycycline having been told to avoid exposure to the sun unless wearing at least factor 30 sunblock! Anyone care to comment? Frankly, I’m hoping to persuade her that this course of action is desirable at least as a trial as living with someone who can’t enjoy life is pretty wearing 🙁 TIA

Clearly not!

Not a GP but a pharmacist. Don’t know much about that indication but I’ve never seen a 5 day on/off regime of antibiotics. Sounds like a recipe for inducing resistance.

There is no cut & dried answer to this IMO

There’s lots of stuff on the www about pulsed antibiotics for Lyme, just as there is for prolonged courses (and of course, prolonged courses followed by pulsed regimens). Similarly, you can find reports of severe illness and possibly deaths attributed to long courses of antibiotic (I’d stress that these tend to be very prolonged courses of drugs other than doxy).

There’s a woeful lack of properly conducted trials in the area and so what you have, on both “sides”, is experience and anecdote in the form of small case series (at best)

Regardless, something is going on with these patients, whether it’s persistent infection or an autoimmune “hangover” is moot; their problem is real. Trouble is that nobody knows what the problem is, so how to treat it is a puzzle

As far as doxycycline and sunshine goes, not everyone who takes it experiences photosensitisation and not everyone who does so gets it in a severe form. Some undoubtedly do though. MrsChaz should be wary until she finds out which group she’s in (and I’d still suggest she stay out of strong sunlight/long exposure even if she’s in the “no problem” group)

(also a pharmacist)