ArticleJournal of neurology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry2022
Six versus 2 weeks treatment with doxycycline in European Lyme neuroborreliosis: a multicentre, non-inferiority, double-blinded, randomised and placebo-controlled trial.
Article in Journal of neurology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 21 citations in OpenAlex.
- Towards shortening the duration of antibiotic therapy for Lyme borreliosis: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Infection · 2025Pooled it
- Guidelines for diagnosis and treatment in neurology - Lyme neuroborreliosis.German medical science : GMS e-journal · 2025Guideline
- Serum neurofilament light chain associates with symptom burden in Lyme neuroborreliosis patients: a longitudinal cohort study from Norway.Journal of neurology · 2024Trial
- Atypical Lyme Neuroborreliosis Presenting With Ventriculitis and Cerebritis: A Case Report.Cureus · 2026Article
- Dynamics of IgM and IgG responses in Lyme neuroborreliosis - a Norwegian longitudinal study.European journal of clinical microbiology & infectious diseases : official publication of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology · 2026Article
- Definite neuroborreliosis with atypical antibody-profiles: a case report.Journal of medical case reports · 2026Article
- Lyme borreliosis.Nature reviews. Disease primers · 2026Review
- Prevalence and clinical characteristics of Norwegians who report persistent health complaints attributed to tick bites or tick-borne diseases.BMC infectious diseases · 2025Article
- Are white matter hyperintensities associated with neuroborreliosis? The answer is twofold.Neuroradiology · 2025Article
- Clinical and laboratory characteristics during a 1-year follow-up in European Lyme neuroborreliosis: A prospective cohort study.European journal of neurology · 2024Article
- Dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI shows altered blood-brain barrier function of deep gray matter structures in neuroborreliosis: a case-control study.European radiology experimental · 2023Article
- Assessment of cognitive function, structural brain changes and fatigue 6 months after treatment of neuroborreliosis.Journal of neurology · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
12 authors at 8 institutions in 5 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThere is limited evidence regarding optimal duration of antibiotic treatment in neuroborreliosis. We aimed to compare efficacy and safety of oral doxycycline for 2 and 6 weeks in European Lyme neuroborreliosis (LNB).
methodsThe trial had a randomised, double-blinded, placebo-controlled, non-inferiority design. Patients with LNB were recruited from eight Norwegian hospitals and randomised to doxycycline 200 mg once daily for 2 weeks, followed by 4 weeks of placebo, or doxycycline 200 mg once daily for 6 weeks. The primary endpoint was clinical improvement as measured by difference in a Composite Clinical Score (0-64 points) from baseline to 6 months. The non-inferiority margin was predetermined to 0.5 points.
resultsOne hundred and twenty-one patients were included. Fifty-two treated for 2 weeks and 53 for 6 weeks were included in the intention-to-treat analyses, and 52 and 51 in per-protocol analysis. Mean difference in clinical improvement between the groups was 0.06, 95% CI -1.2 to 1.2, p=0.99 in the intention-to-treat population, and -0.4, 95% CI -1.4 to 0.7, p=0.51 in the per-protocol population and non-inferiority could not be established. There were no treatment failures and no serious adverse events. The groups did not differ in secondary outcomes including clinical scores at 10 weeks and 12 months, cerebrospinal fluid data and patient-reported outcome measures. Patients receiving 6 weeks doxycycline reported slightly more side effects in week 5.
conclusionOur results strongly indicate that there are no benefits of doxycycline treatment beyond 2 weeks in European LNB. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: 2015-001481-25.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.