Secondary mania in an elderly patient during SARS-COV-2 infection with complete remission: a 1-year follow-up

Abstract

The new Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) appeared in Wuhan (capital city of Hubei Province, China) in December 2019, resulting in an international public health emergency by the end of January 2020 according to The World Health Organization (WHO). The clinical presentation of the new disease consisted of severe respiratory syndrome secondary to acute lung damage. It was also found that other organs were invaded by the new coronavirus. The most typical symptoms in previous coronavirusses were confusion, insomnia, depression and anxiety. Mania and psychosis appeared in low percentages, but subthreshold symptoms were found with more frequency (Rogers et al. 2020). Described cases of mania and psychosis have shown a complete recovery after the infection without the development of chronic mental illness (Noone et al. 2020, Tuna et al. 2020). However, psychiatric consequences of the infection are multifactorial, and existing literature could have serious limitations in observational studies, due to the size of the sample or the short follow-up time (Rogers et al. 2020). Here we present the case of a patient with a possible atypical presentation of SARS-CoV-2 infection with affective mania symptoms. In the present description of the case, data that allowed the identification of the patient was omitted to guarantee privacy.