It is unknown exactly how many people have contracted COVID, but the number of confirmed cases has reached 9.7% of the world’s population. And it’s well known that COVID can have neurological symptoms, such as loss of smell and taste.
Yet what’s not appreciated is the prevalence of severe mental health impacts from COVID. Psychosis and mental health concerns are not an uncommon result of COVID infection. Researchers noted that “COVID-19 can affect the brain directly or indirectly to result in various neuropsychiatric symptoms”.
Post-COVID Psychosis: Case Reports
The Independent reported a case of COVID psychosis suffered by a middle-aged California man. It was presented as a rare condition.
After seeming to recover from the initial illness, the man began seeing demons, picking holes in his face looking for alien implants, and staying at hotels to avoid supposed surveillance of his home. His wife described an otherwise normal man who seemed like a completely different person after infection. He was ultimately found starved to death in a wilderness area.
Another case report concerned a middle-aged woman from London. Again, the patient appeared to have recovered after just a couple of days. After being discharged from hospital, however, the woman returned to hospital the very next day.
Clinicians described her as experiencing “florid visual hallucinations”. In other words? “She thought her cat was a lion and saw monkeys jumping out of the paramedic’s bag.”
It’s amusing to read about, perhaps, but must have been terrifying for the patient. When re-admitted, she attempted to wash her phone in the sink and brush her teeth with soap. She spoke to loved ones but suffered the “Capgras delusion”, believing them to have been replaced by replicas.
There was no physiological cause firmly identified for this patient’s psychosis. However, the researchers noted the likely impact of the intense pro-inflammatory changes in the patient’s body.
Research published in The Lancet has shown that while post-COVID psychosis is not likely, it is not uncommon either. The research tracked the health status of 236,379 survivors of COVID-19 for six months after infection.
It found a 1.4% prevalence of psychotic disorders in COVID-19 survivors during those first six months. For COVID patients who had been admitted to intensive care, that figure rose to 2.77%.
The potential for psychosis to follow viral infection has been known to physicians for hundreds of years. University College London researchers noted reports of “influenza psychosis” that date to the 1700s.
In sum, readers should be aware that COVID’s effects on the body are varied and still relatively little known or appreciated.
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