[Prevention and management of Lyme disease: On complexity and the need to take into consideration various psycho-social factors].

OBJECTIVE

This paper aims to present a psychosocial analysis on the scientific literature concerning Lyme disease prevention and care.

METHODS

We performed a literature review on Lyme disease, especially on prevention and care, both through physicians and patients' perspective.

RESULTS

A total of 31 documents were included in our literature review. Literature shows that the acceptability of preventive measures, which is relatively poor, has to be associated with the behavioral nature, and not medical one, of these interventions. Moreover, the Lyme disease care is characterized by a condition of uncertainty - especially because of the controversy about the existence of the chronical form and the treatment to adopt - provoking important consequences on patient's quality of life. That is why the acknowledgment of profane knowledge's legitimacy is strongly demanded by patients, especially through the research of an empowered condition in the relation with the physicians. In this sense, the construction of a solid relation between caregiver and patient seems to be essential.

CONCLUSIONS

The invisibility of most symptoms, the patient's subjective experience and the social representations about Lyme disease show the need and the contribution of a psychosocial approach, in order to better understand the life experience of this uncertain condition and, more in general, of this disease.