Psychiatric and neuropsychiatric presentations associated with severe coronavirus infections: a systematic review and meta-analysis with comparison to the COVID-19 pandemic
Review of 65 studies and 7 preprints found that SARS-CoV-2 might cause delirium in a significant proportion of patients in acute stage, and if the infection follows similar course to that with SARS-CoV or MERS-CoV, most patients should recover without experiencing mental illness.
Source:
The Lancet Psychiatry
SPS commentary:
The authors advise clinicians to be aware of the possibility of depression, anxiety, fatigue, post-traumatic stress disorder, and rarer neuropsychiatric syndromes in the longer term.
According to a commentary, findings from previous coronavirus outbreaks are useful, but might not be exact predictors of prevalences of psychiatric complications for patients with COVID-19. However, it agrees with the warning from this review that clinicians should be prepared to treat large numbers of patients with COVID-19 who go on to develop a range of mental health conditions.