Trial reportBMC infectious diseases2012
Doxycycline-mediated effects on persistent symptoms and systemic cytokine responses post-neuroborreliosis: a randomized, prospective, cross-over study.
Trial report in BMC infectious diseases, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT01205464 (Immunomodulatory and Clinical Effects of Doxycycline on Persistent Symptoms After Treatment of Neuroborreliosis), which is not on this map. Cited by 10 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Immunomodulatory and Clinical Effects of Doxycycline on Persistent Symptoms After Treatment of Neuroborreliosis: A Double-blind, Randomised, Crossover Study
Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 27 citations in OpenAlex.
- Guidelines for diagnosis and treatment in neurology - Lyme neuroborreliosis.German medical science : GMS e-journal · 2025Guideline
- Treatment of post-treatment Lyme disease symptoms-a systematic review.European journal of neurology · 2024Pooled it
- Lyme borreliosis.Nature reviews. Disease primers · 2026Review
- Persistent self-reported health complaints in Norwegians who attribute their symptoms to tick bites or tick-borne disease- a cross-sectional controlled study.BMC infectious diseases · 2025Article
- Lyme disease and the pursuit of a clinical cure.Frontiers in medicine · 2023Review
- The conjunctival transcriptome in Ethiopians after trichiasis surgery: associations with the development of eyelid contour abnormalities and the effect of oral doxycycline treatment.Wellcome open research · 2019Article
- Antimalarial drugs and the prevalence of mental and neurological manifestations: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Wellcome open research · 2017Article
- Lyme neuroborreliosis-epidemiology, diagnosis and management.Nature reviews. Neurology · 2015Review
- Evidence assessments and guideline recommendations in Lyme disease: the clinical management of known tick bites, erythema migrans rashes and persistent disease.Expert review of anti-infective therapy · 2014Review
- Relevance of chronic lyme disease to family medicine as a complex multidimensional chronic disease construct: a systematic review.International journal of family medicine · 2014Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundPersistent symptoms after treatment of neuroborreliosis (NB) are well-documented, although the causative mechanisms are mainly unknown. The effect of repeated antibiotic treatment has not been studied in detail. The aim of this study was to determine whether: (1) persistent symptoms improve with doxycycline treatment; (2) doxycycline has an influence on systemic cytokine responses, and; (3) improvement of symptoms could be due to doxycycline-mediated immunomodulation. METHODS/
design15 NB patients with persistent symptoms ≥6 months post-treatment were double-blindly randomized to receive 200 mg of doxycycline or a placebo for three weeks. After a six-week wash-out period, a cross-over with a three-week course of a placebo or doxycycline was conducted. The primary outcome measures were improvement of persistent symptoms assessed by neurological examinations, a symptom severity score and estimation of the quality of life. The secondary outcome measure was changes in systemic cytokine responses.
resultsAll 15 patients finished the study. No doxycycline-mediated improvement of post-treatment symptoms or quality of life was observed. Nor could any doxycycline-mediated changes in systemic cytokine responses be detected. The study was completed without any serious adverse events. DISCUSSION: No doxycycline-mediated improvement of post-treatment symptoms or quality of life was observed. Nor could any doxycycline-mediated changes in systemic cytokine responses be detected. The study was completed without any serious adverse events. To conclude, in this pilot study, doxycycline-treatment did not lead to any improvement of either the persistent symptoms or quality of life in post-NB patients. Accordingly, doxycycline does not seem to be the optimal treatment of diverse persistent symptoms post-NB. However, the results need to be confirmed in larger studies.
trial registrationNCT01205464 (clinicaltrials.gov).
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.