Abrupt Late-onset Psychosis as a Presentation of Coronavirus 2019 Disease (COVID-19): A Longitudinal Case Report

We present a longitudinal case of COVID-19 psychosis in a patient who underwent comprehensive diagnostic evaluation. This case is a contribution to the inchoate characterization of neuropsychiatric manifestations of COVID-19 infection. Case Report: We present a case of late-onset psychosis in a middle-aged man with no psychiatric history who tested positive for COVID-19 on admission following a recently resolved upper respiratory illness. His acute presentation—characterized by delusions, hallucinations, and disorganized thought and behavior, for which he required inpatient medical admission and subsequent inpatient psychiatric hospitalization—was successfully treated. During his hospitalization, he underwent comprehensive medical and neurological workup (including neuroimaging; electroencephalography; and serum and cerebrospinal fluid testing) that was grossly unremarkable. Discussion: Despite myriad potential causes of the patient’s psychosis, this patient’s diagnostic workup was largely unrevealing, apart from his nasopharyngeal SARS-2-CoV reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction assay. As such, psychosis secondary to COVID-19 infection emerged as the presumptive diagnosis.
Source: Journal of Psychiatric Practice - Category: Psychiatry Tags: Clinical Case Discussion Source Type: research