Sound sensitivity in Lyme disease.
Fallon and colleagues described sound sensitivity in nearly half of their Lyme disease subjects in their 1992 paper in Psychiatric Quarterly.1
“One boy developed sound sensitivity so severe that ordinary conversation was deafening to him; he wore head phones and put pillows over his head to block out the sound.”
“To one woman even the sound of another person's breathing seemed unbearably loud. In her case, the sound sensitivity also included vertigo, nausea and nystagmus in response to sounds. Any sudden sound, like the phone ringing, and certain household sounds, like the running of tap water, could cause her to fall or retch. This peculiar short-circuiting of the inner ear's auditory and vestibular functions is known as the Tullio phenomenon.”
Tullio phenomenon had typically been seen in syphilis.
Have you ever been sensitive to sound? Please join the conversation in the comments below.
1. Fallon BA, Nields JA, Burrascano JJ, Liegner K, DelBene D, Liebowitz MR. The neuropsychiatric manifestations of Lyme borreliosis. Psychiatr Q. 1992;63(1):95-117.
This is one of a series of short videos to explore topics I have seen in my practice. Dr. Daniel Cameron #LymeConversations
