First-episode psychiatric disorder risk from SARS-CoV-2 infection: A clinical analysis with Chinese psychiatric inpatients

Abstract

The extensive spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) throughout China in late 2022 has underscored the correlation between this virus and severe psychiatric disorders. However, there remains a lack of reported clinical and pathological features. Accordingly, we retrospectively reviewed the electronic medical records of psychiatric inpatients for seven days from early January 2023. Twenty-one inpatients who developed first-episode psychiatric disorders within two weeks after SARS-CoV-2 infection were recruited, while 24 uninfected first-episode psychiatric inpatients were selected as controls. Comparative analyses of clinical manifestations, routine laboratory tests, and imaging examinations were performed. Our investigation demonstrated a 330% increase in the incidence of first-episode psychiatric inpatients after SARS-CoV-2 infection in 2023, compared with the preceding year without SARS-CoV-2 infections. Most cases exhibited psychiatric symptoms within one week of SARS-CoV-2 infection, which resolved after approximately two weeks, with no residual symptoms after three months. One-way ANOVA demonstrated a significant difference in the highest fever temperature between inpatients with and without psychotic symptoms. Infected inpatients displayed elevated levels of interleukin-4, interleukin-8, and interferon-α, but decreased levels of eosinophils and basophils. These findings suggest that SARS-CoV-2 may contribute to the development of psychiatric disorders, likely mediated by the virus-induced inflammatory response and neuronal dysfunction in the context of psychological distress.

Keywords

COVID-19 / SARS-CoV-2 / psychiatric disorders / inflammation / interleukins

Fundings

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 81971289 and 81871344).

Acknowledgments

We thank the participants who generously agreed to participate in the study.

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