Many people who have had COVID are realizing that their symptoms do not always go away and sometimes even change. From gastrointestinal problems to brain fog, there is a long list of strange complications that can arise from the virus. Now, experts are warning of another frightening effect of the coronavirus that is affecting younger patients and even those with mild cases. Doctors found that some patients with COVID develop severe psychotic symptoms without ever having a mental illness before the virus.
In a new feature in The New York Times, doctors describe cases of patients who experience psychotic symptoms after recovering from COVID, including voices heard, paranoia, delusions, homicidal ideation, hallucinations and violence. For more information on these frightening effects of COVID, read on and for more long-term symptoms, see COVID’s long symptom “Really Disturbing” that doctors want you to prepare for.
Read the original article at Better life.
Even patients with mild symptoms of COVID are developing psychosis.
Many of the patients who developed these symptoms had minimal symptoms of COVID during their illness. Psychiatrist Hisam Goueli, MD, said The times that the patients he treated with psychosis had no respiratory complications, but had subtle neurological symptoms, such as tingling in the hands, dizziness, headaches or loss of smell.
Goueli said that between two weeks to a few months later, patients are developing “this profound psychosis, which is really dangerous and scary for everyone around them”.
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Psychosis after COVID is more common in people aged between 30 and 50 years.
The New York Times reports that patients with COVID who have psychotic symptoms tend to be 30, 40 and 50 years old, which is usually an unusual period to develop psychosis. Goueli said the symptoms he sees most commonly coincide with schizophrenia in young people or dementia in older people.
He also points out that many patients are aware of their own psychosis, which is abnormal. Usually, “people with psychosis do not realize that they have lost touch with reality,” said Goueli.
To find out more about another strange COVID symptom, check out This strange symptom may be the only sign that you have COVID, says the study.
Still, the development of psychosis after COVID is quite rare.
Although patients who develop severe psychiatric symptoms after recovering from COVID are not so common, this demonstrates the extent of the type of destruction the virus can cause in the body. An October study published in the journal O Lancet Psychiatry found evidence that about 7 percent of COVID patients with psychiatric complications – 10 out of 150 – were experiencing “recent onset psychosis”.
In addition to severe psychotic symptoms, COVID is also known to have other psychological effects, including depression and anxiety. A November study also published in The Lancet Psychiatry found that patients with COVID “appear to be at increased risk for psychiatric sequelae, and a psychiatric diagnosis may be an independent risk factor for COVID-19.”
To see if you have this telltale coronavirus symptom, check If you have this symptom, there is an 80 percent chance that you will have COVID.
Experts think it is due to inflammation.
Although experts have not yet identified the cause of psychotic symptoms after COVID, they believe they are the result of inflammation or the body’s immune response to the virus. “Some of the neurotoxins that are reactions to immune activation can go to the brain, through the blood-brain barrier, and can induce this damage.” Vilma Gabbay, MD, co-director of the Montefiore Einstein Psychiatric Research Institute, said The times.
Or you may be predisposed to develop psychotic symptoms.
According The times’ In the report, experts suggest that some patients may develop psychosis due to their genetic makeup or an undetected predisposition to mental illness. Brian Kincaid, MD, medical director of Duke’s psychiatric emergency services, said a patient who saw psychosis also developed a skin reaction to another virus. Kincaid said The times that this may suggest that the patient’s immune system goes into excessive action when responding to viral infections.
Psychotic symptoms have also occurred with other viruses.
Although psychotic symptoms may seem like a strange complication of a virus, it is not without precedent. Jonathan Alpert, MD, president of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, said The times that he and his colleagues think “that is not exclusive to COVID.”
A February article published in the magazine Frontiers in psychiatry supports this notion. The researchers compiled information about documented psychosis during various pandemics, from the 1918 flu to the 2009 swine flu. “Associations between influenza infection and psychosis have been reported since the 18th century,” wrote the authors. “It is important to emphasize that the infection has been associated with an increased risk of various psychiatric disorders.”
To see if you have this subtle sign of coronavirus, check out This is one of the most “easily overlooked” symptoms of COVID, experts warn.