Can Lyme disease be a life long disorder? Lyme disease can last for years according to seminal papers by leading medical centers. Researchers at Columbia described 37 patients with Lyme encephalopathy who were ill an average of 9 years after onset1 20 of patients with Lyme encephalopathy in the Columbia University, New York trial felt moderately to severely affected by Lyme disease an average of 19 years after onset2 Researchers at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston described 27 patie