Year: 2020
Type: article
Abstract: Commentary On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared that coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was a pandemic.1 As of mid-May 2020, the illness had claimed more than 316,000 lives worldwide.2 The main symptoms of the respiratory illness caused by COVID-19 are fever, dry cough, and shortness of breath.However, disorders of consciousness also have been reported, especially in patients who succumb to the illness.3 In fact, approximately one-third of hospitalized COVID-19 patients experience neurologic symptoms.4 Although the most common of these symptoms are dizziness, headache, and loss of smell and taste, patients with more severe cases can experience acute cerebrovascular diseases and impaired consciousness. 4 As such, psychiatrists assessing confusion should include COVID-19 in their differential diagnosis as a potential cause of altered mental status. How COVID-19 might affect the CNSAlthough primarily considered a respiratory illness, COVID-19 also may have neurotropic potential.The virus that causes COVID-19, severe acute respiratory syndromecoronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), is a beta-coronavirus.Two other highly pathogenic coronaviruses-SARS-CoV-1 and Middle East respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus (MERS-CoV)-are also beta-coronaviruses, and both have been reported to invade the CNS in some patients.5 These viruses are thought to invade cells via Neuropsychiatric manifestations of COVID-19When assessing altered mental status, consider COVID-19 in your differential diagnosis
Source: Current Psychiatry
DOI: 10.12788/cp.0003
Author: Khushminder Chahal
Language: English
Subfield: Neurology
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W3046353042