[COVID-19 with strange hallucinations and focal EEG abnormalities: Two case reports]. / Két Covid-19-beteg különös hallucinációkkal és fokális EEG-eltérésekkel.

Scientific literature about the ongoing COVID-19 disease and pandemic is considerable, though articles concentrate on the severe cases and their central nervous system manifestations. This article demonstrates two cases: middle-aged female patients who had serologically proven SARS-CoV-2 infection with mild upper airway and central nervous system symptoms. The patients reported vivid, strange, simple, and complex visual and auditory hallucinations. A characteristic element of these complex hallucinations was a talking human-shaped figure. Only three similar cases have been published; this article discusses common features of all five patients. This summary highlights that in COVID-19 cases, minor central nervous system symptoms can accompany mild or even missing upper respiratory symptoms. The cranial MRIs of the presented patients were normal, but the EEG showed focal abnormalities in localizations related to hallucinations, which emphasizes the importance of EEG in differential diagnostic procedures.

Acute-Onset Psychosis Following Prolonged Hospitalization for COVID-19 Pneumonia.

BACKGROUND SARS-CoV-2 infection presents with a variety of clinical manifestations, from asymptomatic courses to prolonged hospitalizations with severe systemic inflammatory responses and multiorgan failure. One particular sequela of the disease that has gained wider attention over the past year is the sudden onset of neuropsychiatric symptoms in the weeks following recovery from COVID-19 pneumonia. While the pathophysiology for the development of this condition is uncertain, symptoms ranging from mild confusion and anxiety to florid psychosis with manic delusions and auditory and visual hallucinations have been rarely, but increasingly, reported in the literature. The acute development of such symptoms in the post-recovery period can be devastating for patients, their caregivers, and clinicians who may be unaware of effective management options. CASE REPORT In this case report, we present a 23-year old man who developed psychotic symptoms, including acute mania, delusions of grandeur, and auditory and visual hallucinations, 1 week following an extended hospitalization for COVID-19 pneumonia. The patient was admitted to our psychiatric unit and treated with a combination of antipsychotic and mood stabilizer medications. After 2 weeks of treatment, the patient's psychotic and mood-related symptoms resolved, with normal mental status maintained at last follow-up 1 month following discharge from our unit. CONCLUSIONS The acute development of neuropsychiatric symptoms is a rare but increasingly recognized sequela of COVID-19. Despite the severity of initial presentation, patients can be successfully treated with short courses of typical antipsychotic medications with complete return to baseline, unimpaired functioning, and no lingering psychiatric sequela.

Investigating predictors contributing to the expression of schizotypy during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has caused major disruptions to social and other forms of functioning, which may influence schizotypy expression. The current study aimed to explore possible distal and proximal predictors contributing to schizotypy in a sample of the Australian general population during the COVID-19 pandemic. The COvid-19 and you: mentaL heaLth in AusTralia now survEy (COLLATE) project is an online mental health study aimed at tracking key mental health indicators over the progression of the pandemic. Adults residing in Australia were invited to take part using non-discriminative snowball sampling. Demographic-clinical information was collected for 850 participants in either October 2020 or January 2021. To assess schizotypy facets, the Launay-Slade Hallucinations Scale-Extended (LSHS-E) and Peters Delusions Inventory (PDI-21) were used to measure hallucination and delusion proneness respectively. Generalised linear models (with gamma and negative binomial distributions) were employed. Age, negative emotions and loneliness significantly contributed to both hallucination and delusion proneness; gender, education and religiosity also significantly contributed to delusion proneness, in the final regression models. Our study corroborated the specific contribution of loneliness, amongst other factors, in the prediction of schizotypy facets. Tackling loneliness represents a public health challenge that needs to be urgently addressed, especially in the face of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Psychosis After Infection With SARS-CoV-2 in an Adolescent: A Case Report.

As many as one-third of patients who have coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) develop long-term neuropsychiatric symptoms, such as anxiety, depression, brain fog, psychosis, seizures, and suicidal behavior.1 Several case reports have demonstrated the association between psychotic symptoms following infection with COVID-19 in adults.1,2 In a first episode of psychosis, clinical findings on history, examination, and diagnostic studies may suggest that the psychotic symptoms are due to medical illness, which may be reversible. The presentation can include acute onset, predominance of visual or tactile hallucinations, and association with other neurological symptoms.3.

Unique Imaging Findings of Neurologic Phantosmia Following Pfizer-BioNtech COVID-19 Vaccination: A Case Report.

ABSTRACT: Olfactory dysfunction related to SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 disease is now well established in the literature. In December 2020, the FDA approved the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines for use in preventing COVID-19 in the United States. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of a phantosmia post-Pfizer COVID-19 vaccination, with positive magnetic resonance imaging radiographic findings in a patient with documented absence of infection by SARS-CoV-2 virus or concomitant sinonasal disease.

[Psychopathological consequences of confinement]. / Conséquences psychopathologiques du confinement.

The psychological effects of isolation have already been described in the literature (polar expeditions, submarines, prison). Nevertheless, the scale of confinement implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic is unprecedented. In addition to reviewing the published studies, we need to anticipate the psychological problems that could arise during or at a distance from confinement. We have gone beyond the COVID-19 literature in order to examine the implications of the known consequences of confinement, like boredom, social isolation, stress, or sleep deprivation. Anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, suicidal or addictive behaviours, domestic violence are described effects of confinement, but the mechanisms of emergence of these disorders and their interrelationships remain to be studied. For example, what are the mechanisms of emergence of post-traumatic stress disorders in the context of confinement? We also remind the reader of points of vigilance to be kept in mind with regard to eating disorders and hallucinations. Hallucinations are curiously ignored in the literature on confinement, whereas a vast literature links social isolation and hallucinations. Due to the broad psychopathological consequences, we have to look for these various symptoms to manage them. We quickly summarize the diagnostic and therapeutic approaches already in place, such as telemedicine, which is undergoing rapid development during the COVID-19 crisis.

Brief Psychotic Disorder During the National Lockdown in Italy: An Emerging Clinical Phenomenon of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on psychosis remains to be established. Here we report 6 cases (3 male and 3 female) of first-episode psychosis (FEP) admitted to our hospital in the second month of national lockdown. All patients underwent routine laboratory tests and a standardized assessment of psychopathology. Hospitalization was required due to the severity of behavioral abnormalities in the context of a full-blown psychosis (the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale [BPRS] = 75.8 ± 14.6). Blood tests, toxicological urine screening, and brain imaging were unremarkable, with the exception of a mild cortical atrophy in the eldest patient (male, 73 years). All patients were negative for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) throughout their stay, but 3 presented the somatic delusion of being infected. Of note, all 6 cases had religious/spiritual delusions and hallucinatory contents. Despite a generally advanced age (53.3 ± 15.6), all patients had a negative psychiatric history. Rapid discharge (length of stay = 13.8 ± 6.9) with remission of symptoms (BPRS = 27.5 ± 3.1) and satisfactory insight were possible after relatively low-dose antipsychotic treatment (Olanzapine-equivalents = 10.1 ± 5.1 mg). Brief psychotic disorder/acute and transient psychotic disorder diagnoses were confirmed during follow-up visits in all 6 cases. The youngest patient (female, 23 years) also satisfied the available criteria for brief limited intermittent psychotic symptoms. Although research on larger populations is necessary, our preliminary observation suggests that intense psychosocial stress associated with a novel, potentially fatal disease and national lockdown restrictions might be a trigger for FEP.

Understanding the mental health burden of COVID-19 in the United Kingdom.

This article outlines the mental health burden of COVID-19 in the United Kingdom population, and presents preliminary evidence of less common psychiatric issues, such as paranoia and hallucinations, to which vulnerable groups in the U.K. population may be more vulnerable. It is argued that cognitive-behavioral therapy, with components of mindfulness, should be part of the therapeutic response. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).