Psychotic Symptoms After SARS-CoV-2 Infection

Abstract

This case series reports three middle-aged male patients with no prior history of psychiatric disorders who developed psychotic symptoms with manic characteristics after COVID-19 infection. They presented mystic and paranoid delusions associated with euphoria, logorrheic, insomnia, and bizarre behaviors. Two of them required psychiatric hospitalization and one received corticosteroids. Treatment with antipsychotic medication improved their symptoms in a few weeks. This case series reports the new-onset psychosis probably due to COVID-19 infection. Pathogenetic speculation about the probable causes of COVID-19 psychosis, such as inflammatory reaction and corticosteroid use, was done. Moreover, other probable causes of manic psychosis, such as late-onset bipolar disorder, were also considered and ruled out. There is a need for more research to determine the causality between psychotic symptoms and COVID-19 infection.