Patients with positive serologic test results frequently have long-standing symptoms for which no other diagnosis has been established. The most common symptoms are musculoskeletal, including myalgias and arthralgias without objective evidence of joint swelling, and syndromes involving fatigue and loss of energy resembling chronic fatigue syndrome.
Some patients fulfill diagnostic criteria for fibromyalgia.
These include, among others, rheumatoid arthritis, hypothyroidism, cervical and low-back degenerative disease, Lyme disease, chronic fatigue syndrome, sleep disorders, depression and even HIV infection. Attending were scientists involved in Lyme disease at NIH and elsewhere, physicians and patient advocates. The participants acknowledged that determining whether chronic Lyme disease is caused by persistent infection or is a post-infectious disorder is a major research goal. Finding the answer to this question for any individual patient will have an important bearing on his or her treatment. This would provide common criteria for studying and treating this multi-symptom disease.