Complicaciones neuropsiquiátricas por COVID-19

Abstract

Introduction: COVID-19 manifests mainly as a respiratory disease, later with the course of the pandemic neurological symptoms were described, but mainly patients developed neurological complications, which manifested with neuropsychiatric symptoms in about 35.6 % of the cases with COVID-19 infection. Aim: to determine neuropsychiatric complications due to covid-19. Methods: a narrative review was carried out to gather information on neuropsychiatric complications due to COVID-19. For this purpose, indexed scientific articles published from 2020 to 2022, in Spanish and English, were consulted using scientific search engines such as PubMed and SciELO. Results: The main neurological symptoms could be the consequence of multiorgan failure, severe infection or brainstem involvement. It has been reported that patients infected by SARS-CoV-2, after 3 weeks, developed altered mental status, encephalopathy, psychosis, neurocognitive syndrome (similar to dementia) and affective disorders. Persistent neurocognitive deficits were identified in patients with delirium even 18 months after discharge. Conclusions: the effect of SARS-CoV-2 at the neuropsychiatric level is manifested as altered mental state, psychosis, depression, anxiety, neurocognitive syndrome, affective disorder, cognitive impairment, dementia, consciousness disorders. Thus, it is suggested that in the presence of risk factors such as critical patients or patients with encephalopathies, contact with persons with the infection should be prevented.