Positive Health Online

Abstract

DEVLINA and COLLEAGUES, 1 Department of General Medicine, Burdwan Medical College, Burdwan, West Bengal, India; 2 Department of Neuromedicine, Bangur Institute of Neurosciences (BIN), Kolkata, West Bengal, India;      3 Department of Psychiatry, Berhampore Mental Hospital, Behrampore, West Bengal, India; 4 Department of Neurology, University Hospital, "12 de Octubre", Madrid, Spain; 5 Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red sobre Enfermedades Neurodegenerativas (CIBERNED), Madrid, Spain;           6 Department of Medicine, Universidad Complutense, Madrid, Spain conducted a review with the aim to analyze the numerous neurological, neuropsychiatric and psychological effects of the 2019 coronavirus infectious disease (COVID-19) with a discussion of evolving therapeutic recommendations.

Background

Albeit primarily a disease of respiratory tract, the 2019 coronavirus infectious disease (COVID-19) has been found to have causal association with a plethora of neurological, neuropsychiatric and psychological effects. This review aims to analyze them with a discussion of evolving therapeutic recommendations.

Methodology

PubMed and Google Scholar were searched from 1 January 2020 to 30 May 2020 with the following key terms: "COVID-19", "SARS-CoV-2", "pandemic", "neuro-COVID", "stroke-COVID", "epilepsy-COVID", "COVID-encephalopathy", "SARS-CoV-2-encephalitis", "SARS-CoV-2-rhabdomyolysis", "COVID-demyelinating disease", "neurological manifestations", "psychosocial manifestations", "treatment recommendations", "COVID-19 and therapeutic changes", "psychiatry", "marginalised", "telemedicine", "mental health", "quarantine", "infodemic" and "social media". A few newspaper reports related to COVID-19 and psychosocial impacts have also been added as per context.

Results

Neurological and neuropsychiatric manifestations of COVID-19 are abundant. Clinical features of both central and peripheral nervous system involvement are evident. These have been categorically analyzed briefly with literature support. Most of the psychological effects are secondary to pandemic-associated regulatory, socioeconomic and psychosocial changes.

Conclusion

Neurological and neuropsychiatric manifestations of this disease are only beginning to unravel. This demands a wide index of suspicion for prompt diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 to prevent further complications and mortality.

References

Devlina Roy  1 , Ritwik Ghosh  1 , Souvik Dubey  2 , Mahua Jana Dubey  3 , Julián Benito-León  4, 5, 6, Biman Kanti Ray  2. Neurological and Neuropsychiatric Impacts of COVID-19 Pandemic. Can J Neurol Sci.;48(1):9-24. Jan 2021. doi: 10.1017/cjn.2020.173. Epub Aug 5 2020.