Researchers from California said mild COVID-19 symptoms may have triggered sudden mental health in at least two teenage patients,
- It’s unclear what caused the psychiatric illness.
- The University of California, San Francisco, said the researchers found evidence that antibodies attacked the brain of their patients after COVID-19 infection, which led to the psychiatric symptoms.
The researchers published their findings in the medical journal JAMA Neurology. The researchers said two teens experienced “documented psychiatric symptoms, including extreme mood swings, paranoid delusions, and suicidal ideation” after they had a confirmed COVID-19 infection, according to Gizmodo.
Sam Pleasure, the study’s author and a UCSF neurologist, told Gizmodo that the timing of the symptoms and the COVID-19 infection mean there’s a link between them.
- The researchers said they found antibodies to the coronavirus and autoantibodies to the nervous system, per Gizmodo.
Doctors have reported seeing a symptom called “COVID psychosis” after infection, NBC News reports.
- The feelings associated with COVID psychosis include “distress and an impaired sense of reality,” according to NBC News.
According to The New York Times, there is a small percentage of COVID-19 patients reported severe psychotic symptoms after they were infected with the virus. Many of these patients didn’t have mental illness beforehand.