There is controversy regarding the nature and degree of intellectual
and memory deficits in chronic Lyme disease. In this study, 81
participants with rigorously diagnosed chronic Lyme disease were
administered the newest revisions of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale
(WAIS-III) and Wechsler Memory Scale (WMS-III), and compared to 39
nonpatients. On the WAIS-III, Lyme disease participants had poorer Full
Scale and Performance IQ's. At the subtest level, differences were
restricted to Information and the Processing Speed subtests. On the
WMS-III, Lyme disease participants performed more poorly on Auditory
Immediate, Immediate, Auditory Delayed, Auditory Recognition Delayed, and
General Memory indices. Among WMS-III subtests, however, differences were
restricted to Logical Memory (immediate and delayed) and Family Pictures
(delayed only), a Visual Memory subtest. Discriminant analyses suggest
deficits in chronic Lyme are best characterized as a combination of memory
difficulty and diminished processing speed. Deficits were modest, between
one-third and two-thirds of a standard deviation, consistent with earlier
studies. Depression severity had a weak relationship to processing speed,
but little other association to test performance. Deficits in chronic Lyme
disease are consistent with a subtle neuropathological process affecting
multiple performance tasks, although further work is needed to
definitively rule out nonspecific illness effects. (JINS, 2006,
12, 119–129.)