COVID-19: Virus Can Cause PTSD in Patients

Through the ages, one common characteristic of previous human coronavirus outbreaks such as SARS and MERS has been PTSD experienced by people affected by the virus.

According to a recent study in The Clinical Neuropsychologist, patients who have recovered from COVID-19 have shown symptoms of brain fog and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Patients also said that they experienced headaches, difficulty in concentration, sleep disruptions, fatigue or anxiety. Some patients were also worried about the possibility of the symptoms lingering throughout their lives.

In fact, the study also cited that almost one-third of hospitalised COVID-19 positive patients had experienced some sort of altered mental function. The mental instability ranged from confusion to delirium to unresponsiveness.

“The idea is to raise awareness among neuropsychologists that PTSD is something you might want to consider when evaluating persistent cognitive and emotional difficulties among Covid-19 survivors.”

Andrew Levine, study lead, MD, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA

Levine explained: “When we see someone for neuropsychological testing, we expect them to be at their best, relatively speaking. If we identify a psychiatric illness during our evaluation, and if we believe that the symptoms of that condition are interfering with their ability to perform at their best, we would want that treated first and then retest them once it’s under control.”

Another researcher explained that if symptoms linger are felt eve after months since the original injury, there is a high possibility of a psychiatric disorder being the cause.

“Once they have treatment, and hopefully have some remission of their psychiatric symptoms, if the cognitive complaints and the deficits on neuro-psychological tests are still there, then that’s more evidence that something else is going on.” 

Erin Kaseda, study lead, graduate student, Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science, in Chicago

“It’s going to be important for clinicians across the board to be keeping up with the literature that’s coming out, to make sure they have the most up to date information as these survivors are starting to present for neuropsychological testing.” She added.

It was also found from a review of data from the SARS and MERS outbreaks that the survivors had a heightened risk of PTSD.