(Newser)
– An Illinois family is demonstrating after a husband and father of two committed suicide, saying that he did so as a result of a “COVID psychosis”. Morris’s Ben Price committed suicide 16 days after being diagnosed with COVID-19 in February. The 48-year-old married farmer, father of two, spent four days in the hospital with respiratory problems, then a different person returned home, widow Jennifer Price told WGN. “He just paced the house and repeated things. And it wasn’t even in her normal tone of voice, ”she says. “He kept saying, ‘I’m sorry, I’m so scared’. He looked out the window and worried about things that weren’t even happening. “A drug was prescribed to calm him down, but he died of suicide shortly after.” Our Ben would never have left us, “says Price. But” he was not our Ben. ”
Doctors described rare cases of psychosis after COVID-19. “In fact, it appears that COVID-19 may have a two-way relationship with mental illness, in which experiencing mental illness increases the risk of developing COVID-19, but also COVID-19 infection increases the risk of subsequent mental illness. “says a review published last month in Progress in Neurology and Psychiatry. He refers to a study that found that 18% of 62,354 patients had a psychiatric diagnosis – with 5.8% representing a first diagnosis – within 90 days of the COVID-19 diagnosis. But “the types of neurological and cognitive problems and even emotional and psychiatric problems as part of a Covid infection” are not fully understood, infectious disease specialist Emily Landon told WGN. Until that happens, Price wants families to be on guard. (More about neurological symptoms here.)