THE ROLE OF CO-MORBID MENTAL DISORDERS IN LYME DISEASE

Univ Of Med/Dent Nj-R W Johnson Med Sch, Piscataway NJ

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Abstract

DESCRIPTION (provided by investigator): Committed to a career in behavioral science research, the candidate's immediate goals are to obtain high quality didactic training and additional mentored experience related to interdisciplinary research. Long term career goals include exploring the role of co-morbid mental disorders and related psychological processes in rheumatologic illness and eventually becoming an expert on medically unexplained symptom syndromes across specialties. Current research is based on the candidate's stress-diathesis theoretical model for the "psychopathogenesis" of unexplained symptom syndromes present in rheumatology, i.e., Post Lyme Disease and fibromyalgia. The K08 Award would allow the candidate to devote 80 percent of her time to research and training. UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School is an outstanding environment in which to conduct this type of research. In addition to traditional biomedical research, many faculty members are actively exploring the role of psychological processes in health and illness. Mentorship would be provided by two such exceptional faculty, Javier I. Escobar, MD, Chairman of Psychiatry and Leonard H. Sigal MD, Chief of Rheumatology and Director of the Lyme Disease Center at UMDNJ-RWJMS. In addition to superior mentored clinical research experience, the candidate will receive advanced training in research methodology, statistical analysis, the responsible conduct of research, and neuroscience. Training highlights include statistical analyses through the Department of Statistics at Rutgers University and Neuroscience coursework at Princeton University. Mentored experience in research will consist of two studies. Study 1 will assess the co-morbid clinical disorders (Axis I) and pathological personality traits (Axis II) of patients who attribute chronic symptoms to Lyme disease. Study 2 prospectively examines newly diagnosed Lyme disease patients for co-morbid mental disorders and related cognitive/behavioral processes at baseline and follows them for one year. Our goal is to identify risk factors for the development of chronic symptoms ascribed to Lyme disease after adequate antibiotic treatment.