Divided Bodies – Lyme Disease, Contested Illness, and Evidence–Based Medicine

Name: Divided Bodies – Lyme Disease, Contested Illness, and Evidence–Based Medicine
Brand: Duke University Press

Duke University Press

Divided BodiesLyme Disease, Contested Illness, and Evidence-Based Medicine\nAuthor(s): Abigail A. Dumes\nFormat: Paperback\nPublisher: Duke University Press, United States\nImprint: Duke University Press\nISBN-13: 9781478006664, 978-1478006664\nSynopsis\nWhile many doctors claim that Lyme disease-a tick-borne bacterial infection-is easily diagnosed and treated, other doctors and the patients they care for argue that it can persist beyond standard antibiotic treatment in the form of chronic Lyme disease. In Divided Bodies, Abigail A. Dumes offers an ethnographic exploration of the Lyme disease controversy that sheds light on the relationship between contested illness and evidence-based medicine in the United States. Drawing on fieldwork among Lyme patients, doctors, and scientists, Dumes formulates the notion of divided bodies: she argues that contested illnesses are disorders characterized by the division of bodies of thought in which the patient's experience is often in conflict wit.