» A Voice Told Me to Kill My Kids : A Small Number of Covid Patients Develop Severe Psychotic Symptoms
8-MIN READ A Voice Told Me to Kill My Kids : A Small Number of Covid Patients Develop Severe Psychotic Symptoms
From left: Drs. Jonathan Komisar, Brian Kincaid and Colin Smith of Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C., Nov. 27, 2020. They treated a psychotic patient who had never experienced mental health problems before contracting the coronavirus. (Jeremy M. Lange/The New York Times)
A small number of COVID patients who had never experienced mental health problems are developing severe psychotic symptoms weeks after contracting the coronavirus.
Report details cases of severe psychosis in Covid patients in the UK and the US
Psychotic symptoms are being seen in people with no prior psychiatric history
One UK woman saw hospital staff as devils and washed her phone in the sink
Another US woman began carrying a knife and put hand sanitiser in her food
Australian experts have estimated psychosis affects up to 4% of Covid patients
The U.S. new cases 7-day rolling average is 14.7 % LOWER than the 7-day rolling average one week ago. U.S. hospitalizations due to COVID-19 are now 3.8 %
HIGHER than the rolling average one week ago. U.S. deaths due to coronavirus are now 15.9 %
LOWER than the rolling average one week ago. Today s posts include:
U.S. Coronavirus New Cases are 150,092
U.S. Coronavirus hospitalizations are at an elevated 118,720 (for the next two weeks this is the number to watch as new cases and deaths will not be accurately reported)
U.S. Coronavirus deaths are at a holiday reduced number of 1,209
U.S. Coronavirus immunizations have been administered to 0.6% of the population
Small Number of Covid Patients Develop Severe Psychotic Symptoms
Most had no history of mental illness and became psychotic weeks after contracting the virus. Cases are expected to remain rare but are being reported worldwide.
Dr. Hisam Goueli treated several psychotic patients who had never had mental health issues before, including a woman who told him she kept visualizing her children being murdered. “It was like she was experiencing a movie,” he said.Credit.Jovelle Tamayo for The New York Times
Almost immediately, Dr. Hisam Goueli could tell that the patient who came to his psychiatric hospital on Long Island this summer was unusual.
Holiday travelers at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta on Dec. 23.Credit.Nicole Craine for The New York Times
Sunday was the busiest day for U.S. airports since mid-March, underscoring concerns that a spike in holiday travel may contribute to the spread of the coronavirus, even as new cases remain alarmingly high and officials plead with Americans to avoid taking unnecessary risks.
The Transportation Security Administration screened nearly 1.3 million people on Sunday, the most since March 15, when airline passenger numbers were in free-fall as the pandemic began to take hold within the United States.
Since then, the number of travelers screened at airports has exceeded one million fewer than a dozen times, including around Thanksgiving and Christmas.