Cited by 199Long-Term Effects of COVID-19Intensive Care Unit Cognitive DisordersCOVID-19 and Mental Health

Delirium in COVID-19: a case series and exploration of potential mechanisms for central nervous system involvement

Open access
Beach, Scott R., Praschan, Nathan C., Hogan, Charlotte, Dotson, Samuel, Merideth, Flannery, Kontos, Nicholas, Fricchione, Gregory L., Smith, Felicia A.·2020·General Hospital Psychiatry

Abstract

Introduction Neuropsychiatric manifestations of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) have been described, including anosmia, ageusia, headache, paresthesia, encephalitis and encephalopathy. Little is known about the mechanisms by which the virus causes central nervous system (CNS) symptoms, and therefore little guidance is available regarding potential workup or management options.Cases We present a series of four consecutive cases, seen by our psychiatry consultation service over a one-week period, each of which manifested delirium as a result of infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2).Discussion The four cases highlighted here all occurred in older patients with premorbid evidence of cognitive decline. Unique features seen in multiple cases included rigidity, alogia, abulia, and elevated inflammatory markers. In all four cases, a change in mental status was the presenting symptom, and three of the four cases lacked significant respiratory symptoms. In addition to discussing unique features of the cases, we discuss possible pathophysiologic explanations for COVID-19 delirium.Conclusions Delirium should be recognized as a potential feature of infection with SARS-CoV-2 and may be the only presenting symptom. Based on the high rates of delirium demonstrated in prior studies, hospitals should consider adding mental status changes to the list of testing criteria. Further research is needed to determine if delirium in COVID-19 represents a primary encephalopathy heralding invasion of the CNS by the virus, or a secondary encephalopathy related to systemic inflammatory response or other factors.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/j.genhosppsych.2020.05.008

Cites

40 of 40 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

8 of the 48 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Beach, S. R., Praschan, N. C., Hogan, C., Dotson, S., Merideth, F., Kontos, N., Fricchione, G. L., & Smith, F. A.
Affiliations
Harvard University (US)
Corresponding author
Beach, Scott R.
Venue
General Hospital Psychiatry
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2020-07
Volume
65
Pages
47-53
ISSN
0163-8343 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W3026414252
Cited by
199
References
48
Citations by year
2026: 2 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 14 · 2023: 22 · 2022: 47 · 2021: 70 · 2020: 40
FWCI
19.36
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • General Hospital Psychiatry (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Neurology › Long-Term Effects of COVID-19
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Critical Care and Intensive Care Medicine › Intensive Care Unit Cognitive Disorders
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › COVID-19 and Mental Health
Keywords
COVID-19 pandemic, SARS-CoV-2, delirium, central nervous system involvement, neuropsychiatric symptoms, cognitive decline, older adults, rigidity, alogia, abulia, inflammatory markers, systemic inflammatory response, encephalopathy, psychiatric consultation
MeSH terms
COVID-19, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Brain Diseases, Delirium, Female, Humans, Male, Pneumonia, Viral, Coronavirus Infections, Pandemics, Cognitive Dysfunction

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review