Weeks after contracting the virus, the majority had no history of mental illness and became psychotic. Expectedly, cases are to remain rare but are being reported worldwide.
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On Long Island, Dr. Hisam Goueli, a psychiatrist, could instantly say that the patient who came to his psychiatric hospital this summer was infrequent.
In North Carolina, a 42-year-old physical therapist and mother of four young children had never had psychiatric symptoms nor any family history of mental illness. Yet there she was, sitting in a room at South Oaks Hospital in Amityville, N.Y., crying and saying that she kept seeing her ages 2 to 10 children being horrifically murdered and that she had crafted plans to kill them.
Dr. Goueli said, "It was like she was experiencing a movie, like 'Kill Bill." He added, "It's a horrifying thing that here's this well-accomplished woman and she's like 'I love my kids, and I don't know why I feel this way that I want to decapitate them," as the patient described one of her offspring being run over by a truck and another beheaded.
The covid survivor declined to be interviewed but permitted Dr. Goueli to describe her case. The only notable thing about her medical history as she got coronavirus in the spring. She had experienced minor physical symptoms from the virus, but, months later, she heard voices that told her to kill herself and then told her to kill her children.
South Oaks has an inpatient psychiatric treatment program for Covid-19 patients. Still, Dr. Goueli was uncertain whether the woman's psychological symptoms are coronavirus related. He recalled thinking, "Maybe this is Covid-related, maybe it's not."
He added, "But then, we saw a second case, a third case, and a fourth case, and we're like, 'There's something happening.'"
Indeed, across the country and globally, doctors are reporting parallel cases. A small number of Covid patients who had no mental health problems before developed severe psychotic symptoms weeks after they contracted the coronavirus.
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In conferences and scientific articles, specialists described:
In North Carolina, a 36-year-old nursing home employee covid patient became so paranoid that she believed her three children would be abducted. To save them, she passed them through a fast-food restaurant's drive-through window.
In New York City, a 30-year-old construction worker covid patient became so delusional that he imagined his cousin would murder him. To protect himself, he strangled his cousin in bed.
In Britain, a 55-year-old woman had hallucinations of monkeys and a lion and became swayed an impostor had substituted a family member.
Aside from individual reports, a British study of neurological complications in 153 hospitalized Covid-19 patients found that
ten people had "new-onset psychosis." A separate study revealed ten patients in one hospital in Spain. In Covid-related social media groups, medical professionals discuss seeing patients with similar symptoms in the Midwest, Great Plains, and elsewhere.
Duke University Medical Center in Durham Dr. Colin Smith said, "My guess is any place that is seeing Covid is probably seeing this," He helped treat the North Carolina woman. He and other doctors said their patients were too delicate to be questioned whether the media may interview them for this article. Still, some, including the North Carolina woman, agreed to have their cases described in scientific papers.
