Determinants of persistent symptoms after treatment for Lyme borreliosis: a prospective observational cohort study.

Background: Patients treated for Lyme borreliosis (LB) frequently report persistent symptoms. Little is known about risk factors and etiology.
Methods: In a prospective observational cohort study with a follow-up of one year, we assessed a range of microbiological, immunological, genetic, clinical, functional, epidemiological, psychosocial and cognitive-behavioral variables as determinants of persistent symptoms after treatment for LB. Between 2015 and 2018 we included 1135 physician-confirmed LB patients at initiation of antibiotic therapy, through clinical LB centers and online self-registration. Two reference cohorts of individuals without LB (n = 4000 and n = 2405) served as a control. Prediction analyses and association studies were used to identify determinants, as collected from online questionnaires (three-monthly) and laboratory tests (twice).
Findings: Main predictors of persistent symptoms were baseline poorer physical and social functioning, higher depression and anxiety scores, more negative illness perceptions, comorbidity, as well as fatigue, cognitive impairment, and pain in 295 patients with persistent symptoms. The primary prediction model correctly indicated persistent symptoms in 71.0% of predictions (AUC 0.79). In patients with symptoms at baseline, cognitive-behavioral responses to symptoms predicted symptom persistence. Of various microbiological, immunological and genetic factors, only lower IL-10 concentrations in ex vivo stimulation experiments were associated with persistent symptoms. Clinical LB characteristics did not contribute to the prediction of persistent symptoms.
Interpretation: Determinants of persistent symptoms after LB were mainly generic, including baseline functioning, symptoms and cognitive-behavioral responses. A potential role of host immune responses remains to be investigated.
Funding: Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development (ZonMw); the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport (VWS).
Competing Interests: Declaration of interests MEB, FRvdS and JWH report collaborations on LB diagnostics with Pfizer, Antigen Discovery Inc., Oxford Immunotec, AID/GenID, and InVitaLab; funding to institution and/or material supplied for research free of charge, no personal financial compensation. MEB reports support for travel expenses related to LB symposium at Massachusetts General Hospital. LABJ and BJK are co-inventor of Spirofind, an experimental in-house assay for Lyme borreliosis, which is owned by Radboudumc and will not be developed further as potential diagnostic test. CCvdW is a consortium partner and partner in sub-project in the NMCB consortium (The Dutch ME/CFS Cohort and Biobank Consortium) funded by Netherlands Organization for Health Research and Development (ZonMw, project numbers 10091012110027 and 10091012110018). The other authors report no competing interests.
(Copyright © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)