It's nearly a year when the coronavirus disease or COVID-19 has been reported, starting from Wuhan, China, and spreading across the globe rather quickly, and with the COVID-19 vaccine within reach, experts are apparently still learning something new about the disease even at this stage.
One such discovery is the mysterious but horrifying symptom of the virus that appears in recovered patients: severe psychiatric symptoms.
The 'Unusual' Case of a Mother of Four
It all started when Dr. Hisam Goueli, a psychiatrist, shared the "unusual" case of a 42-year-old woman and mother of four who visited his Long Island psychiatric hospital to the New York Times.
The woman refused to be interviewed, but she has given her consent to the psychiatrist to describe her case.
According to the doctor, the woman nor any member of her family has no history of mental illness, but the patient sought the help of Dr. Goueli and was reportedly sobbing while saying that she kept seeing her children of ages two to 10 being brutally killed and that she herself had actually crafted the plan to murder them.
"It was like she was experiencing a movie, like 'Kill Bill,'" the doctor said. "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.'"
What's extremely unusual was that the woman had no notable sickness in her medical history except contracting COVID-19 in spring
The patient only endured mild symptoms and later recovered.
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More Similar Cases Popping Up
But months after, the severe psychotic symptoms began, wherein she described hearing a voice saying she should harm herself and her children.
Initially, Dr. Goueli was uncertain that the case had something to do with the virus, but apparently, they saw a second case and then a third and fourth, and by this time, the expert, as well as others in the field, believe that "something is happening."
In a report by Yahoo! Life, other doctors across the country have also reported similar cases, such as a 36-year-old woman who believed her children will be kidnapped and she had to push them through a drive-thru window in order to save them.
Another case involves a 30-year-old New York local that was delusional and tried to strangle his cousin in his bed because he believes his cousin is going to kill him.
Moreover, there is also the case of a 55-year-old woman, in Britain this time, who have been hallucinating monkeys and a lion and is also convinced that a family member has been replaced by an impostor.
Evidence Shows Link Between the Two
As it turns out, there are more cases of folks with no history of mental disorders suddenly experiencing severe psychosis after recovering from COVID-19.
In the UK, 153 patients have been reported to show evidence of psychiatric complications, as laid out by a British study published in "Lancet Psychiatry," as well as 10 more patients in a Spanish hospital, according to another study.
Although experts believe the affected individuals are only a small number, the cases show a unique example of how the virus can affect a person's mental health and brain function.
As of writing, Dr. Goueli's patient is undergoing treatment to help her.
This article is owned by Tech Times
Written by: Nhx Tingson
