STUDENT: Amanda Mattina

PROJECT ADVISOR: Michael M. Evans

ABSTRACT

Lyme disease if not caught early enough can cause serious health problems and disrupt a persons way of life. Unfortunately, many times the disease gets misdiagnosed because it acts as many other diseases such as, multiple sclerosis and fibromyalgia. Fortunately, if the disease is caught early it can be easily treated with antibiotics. Unfortunately, Often times patients will continue to have joint issues. Therefore, the purpose of my paper is to gather literature to find an intervention for adults that involves massage therapy to help with joint pain associated with Lyme disease. A review of literature was conducted to locate all possible scholarly articles. This included PubMed and CINAHL using keywords such as massage therapy, Lyme disease and joint pain. Inclusion criteria were 18 years old and older who experience joint pain associated with Lyme disease. Exclusion criteria include younger than 18 years old and recently involved in an accident, have any open wounds or deep vein thrombosis. Upon completion of the literature review, 28 articles were reviewed and four articles were retained because of the relevance to this research. After reviewing the articles it is concluded massage therapy can be useful for joint pain associated with Lyme disease. Lyme disease can be a complex disease if not diagnosed correctly and cause many hard ships for patients for the rest of their lives.