Study and Treatment of Post Lyme Disease (STOP-LD)
Antibiotics
Lyme Disease
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Treatment Study
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Summary
The purpose of this study is to see how well antibiotics work in reducing chronic fatigue symptoms, such as tiredness, in patients that were treated for Lyme Disease. Fatigue is a common symptom of Lyme Disease. When fatigue does not improve after treatment, patients are considered to have Post Lyme Syndrome (PLS). The chronic fatigue seen in these patients appears to be related to the initial infection which causes Lyme Disease. It is believed, but not proven, that treatment with antibiotics may be effective in relieving chronic fatigue in PLS patients. You will be assigned randomly (like tossing a coin) to receive either antibiotics or a placebo (sugar pill). Neither you nor your doctor will know which you are receiving. You will learn to give yourself the injection, and you will remain on your study drug for 28 days. A home health care nurse will visit you twice a week to check the injection site, and at weeks 1 and 3 the nurse will draw blood for laboratory tests. At months 1 and 6, you will be examined to see if you have fewer chronic fatigue symptoms after the antibiotics. This will include a fatigue questionnaire, a test of your mental processing speed, and a test of your cerebrospinal fluid.
Protocol
This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.In this clinical study, participants are placed into groups randomly, like flipping a coin. This ensures that the study is fair and unbiased, making the results more reliable. By assigning participants by chance, researchers can better compare treatments without external influences.
Other Ways to Assign Participants
Non-randomized allocation: Participants are assigned based on specific factors, such as their medical condition or a doctor's decision.
None (Single-arm trial): If the study has only one group, all participants receive the same treatment, and no allocation is needed.
Participants are divided into different groups, each receiving a specific treatment at the same time. This helps researchers compare how well different treatments work against each other.
Other Ways to Assign Treatments
Single-group assignment: Everyone gets the same treatment.
Cross-over assignment: Participants switch between treatments during the study.
Factorial assignment: Participants receive different combinations of treatments.
Sequential assignment: Participants receive treatments one after another in a specific order, possibly based on individual responses.
Other assignment: Treatment assignment does not follow a standard or predefined design.
Neither participants nor researchers know who is receiving which treatment. This is the most rigorous way to reduce bias, ensuring that expectations do not influence the results.
Other Ways to Mask Information
Open-label: Everyone knows which treatment is being given.
Single-blind: Participants do not know which treatment they are receiving, but researchers do.
Triple-blind: Participants, researchers, and outcome assessors do not know which treatment is given.
Quadruple-blind: Participants, researchers, outcome assessors, and care providers all do not know which treatment is given.
Eligibility
Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria: person's general health condition or prior treatments.Conditions
Criteria
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