Duration of treatment for Lyme borreliosis: time for a critical reappraisal.

Over time the recommended duration of antibiotic therapy for patients with erythema migrans has increased. This change in prescribing practice is not evidence-based. The presumptions that post-treatment subjective complaints, which occur in a minority of patients, may be reduced by increasing the duration of initial therapy or ameliorated by a repeat course of parenteral or oral antimicrobials, have not been supported by recent clinical trials. Recommendations on duration of treatment of early Lyme borreliosis deserve critical reappraisal.